


Konoha Reborn

by Daenerion



Category: Naruto Original Series, Naruto Shippuden
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-12 15:30:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4484703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daenerion/pseuds/Daenerion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would have happened if the night Itachi Uchiha was assigned to slaughter his family, a mysterious stranger arrived at Konoha to change the fate of the village and the Uchiha clan?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Changing a Fate

“Itachi, you know what must be done in order to keep Konoha safe,” said Danzo matter-of-factly, “the Uchiha clan must either bring a halt to their plans for a coup or they must be eliminated.”  
The Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, spoke up then, “Danzo! You should not speak of such things in front of Itachi!”  
“Hiruzen!” shouted Danzo, “Itachi is a member of ANBU; he knew the conditions of becoming a member of Konoha’s black operations division. He will…”  
At that moment the door to the council room burst open and a tall man with long, dark brown hair and a handsome face strode into the council room, his eyes closed as if he were enjoying some particularly good music. Danzo, Hiruzen and Itachi were quick to respond and were standing in a line in front of the village elders, kunai at the ready.   
The tall stranger snickered then and opened his eyes revealing something that made everyone, including the young Itachi, gasp in shock. The man in the doorway possessed something that not even Itachi had, the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

Itachi was especially shocked, he had not realised that his clan had members that were unknown to him. On top of that he did not know of any members that had the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan other than his best friend, Shisui Uchiha.   
“Itachi! Have you betrayed us?!” accused Danzo, “Is your clan making its move now?”  
“Danzo-sama…” but before Itachi could finish what he was saying, the man at the door laughed again, this time as if he found Danzo’s words to be particularly amusing, as if he were a child trying to explain away some sort of mischief.  
“No, Danzo Shimura,” said the man at the door, “I am not a member of the Uchiha clan.”  
Itachi paled, anger rising in his gut, “Then why do you have the Mangekyou Sharingan?!”

 

The man smiled again, “My grandmother was a member of an exiled branch of the Uchiha, my father was a member of a clan that Hiruzen-sama should be very familiar with. A clan that sent its last daughter to be fostered here and to become the new Kyuubi Jinchuriki many years ago, or don’t you remember my face Hiruzen-sama?”  
Realisation dawned on Hiruzen’s face, “So you were that little boy that came with Kushina and her parents to leave their daughter here all those years ago.”  
“Not quite Hiruzen-sama,” said the man, “I was, and still am, Kushina Uzumaki’s elder brother, Nagato Uzumaki and I have come here tonight to stop the extinction of a clan that I share blood with as well as to return to Konoha and reclaim my nephew from the darkness and sorrow that you have left him in.”  
Hiruzen was the first to lower his weapons, Itachi doing so next and Danzo grudgingly followed suit. After they had lowered their weapons Nagato closed his eyes and deactivated his Sharingan and they became a pleasing merlot red colour. 

 

“What do you propose?” asked Hiruzen, his desire to preserve an old and powerful clan, loyal to Konoha urging him on.  
“Let us sit down and discuss this then,” suggested Nagato. Hiruzen motioned for one of the servants in the room to bring a seat, when the chair was brought Nagato looked at Hiruzen with irritation, “May I ask why Itachi has no seat?”  
Hiruzen was taken aback by this question, but gestured for another chair to be brought. Once they were all seated at the table the elders were seated at, Nagato finally spoke,   
“My mother and father kept a close eye on Konoha after they left my sister here. They had eyes and ears in nearly every clan, including the Sarutobi, Senju, Shimura and Uchiha clans. They kept us informed of the goings on in Konoha and of my sister’s progress. After my parents died in a surprise attack by shinobi of Kirikagure, I was left to oversee my clan’s shrinking powerbase and its scattered family members. I took to the task and turned my clan around. We have grown since then and have thrived. However, just before my nephew was born, my spies in the Shimura and Sarutobi clans became silent. Then one after another, all my spies in Konoha either clammed up or disappeared, except for the one in the Uchiha clan. My spy has kept me abreast of what the Uchiha have been planning and what has happened to my nephew since his parents’ deaths.”   
Nagato looked Hiruzen dead in the eyes and said with barely disguised anger in his voice, “I am not pleased at all, Hiruzen, not pleased at all.”

 

Hiruzen averted his eyes, shame grasping him from deep in his gut. He had not given Naruto the kind of care that he truly deserved and had been content to keep his true heritage a secret, simply because it was more convenient to allow the boy to live in ignorance of his family and true power.  
Hiruzen swallowed, holding back tears of shame and regret and asked Nagato, “What would you have me do to end this threat to the village?”  
Anger still prickling in his belly, Nagato closed his eyes in concentration and forged ahead, “Despite the council’s gross negligence to my clan and the memory of the previous Hokage, I am willing to propose something that you will all agree to or face an uprising this very night.”  
The council was quick to respond, kunai and other weapons being drawn, even Itachi activated his own Sharingan.   
Nagato smiled at this, “It seems that you have underestimated the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans yet again. Did you honestly think I would come here without having insurance policies put in place?” 

 

Nagato opened his eyes again, his Mangekyou Sharingan shining bright red in the light of the room, “For years now I have been in contact with Fukagu Uchiha and we have been planning for a day for the Uzumaki clan to return to Konoha as an ally of the Uchiha. Unfortunately you have forced us to move our plans forward quite a bit since you have been trying to influence Itachi into doing your dirty work. The Uchiha clan has armed and armoured everyone of Chunin rank and above and I have added a hundred of my own clan to that mix, which gives us roughly one hundred and thirty fully matured Sharingan users as well as nearly a hundred other fighters. I have also taken steps to have Naruto guarded by my men, so in short we have your precious Jinchuriki in our grasp. With these as bargaining tools I intended to negotiate with the council and have myself placed as the new Hokage or we would begin our uprising.”  
Nagato could tell using his Sharingan that the council had begun to infuse their chakra, so he began to do the same as a way to intimidate them. Judging by the looks on the faces of many of the council within seconds of him infusing his chakra, it had worked splendidly.  
Hiruzen was stunned, this man, this Nagato Uzumaki, was only now beginning to infuse chakra within his body and he was already at an astronomical level of power, he had power enough to give Hiruzen pause within moments of beginning to infuse his chakra.  
Danzo spoke up then, a wicked smile playing upon his lips, “You do realise that the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans are still outnumbered twenty to one by the standing force of shinobi in Konoha?”

 

Nagato looked Danzo directly in the eye, his face contorting into something akin to a beast snarling, “Do you think me so foolish as to only have two clans on my side and making this move? Do you think me an idiot? I have at least seven other clans on my side and if the fighting were to quickly go in our favour, many more would join us! I’m guessing that you didn’t know that, Danzo the Sharingan thief!?”  
Danzo was shocked, a look of fear upon his face, he was about to deny the accusation when Nagato stopped him by steaming ahead with his accusation, “Do you think that I cannot sense Shisui’s chakra in that right eye of yours? Who do you think taught Shisui how to unlock his visual powers to the degree that he had?! It was me! I taught that amazing young man everything that he knew and you squandered him to increase your own pathetic power. The slaughter of the Uchiha clan would have just given you access to more spare Sharingan, would it not?”

 

Danzo was silent for quite some time, the Hokage and the other elders on the council simply looking at him with accusing glares; he remained silent though and looked away from the council. His silence was akin to an admission of guilt and with his deafening silence, the council knew he could not deny Nagato’s accusations.  
Nagato turned his gaze back to Hiruzen. The Hokage was looking at his old friend Danzo with disappointment and disgust in his eyes; he could no longer vouch for Danzo’s character, methods or even as a shinobi. Hiruzen looked at Nagato, careful not to look into his eyes and asked, “What are you demands?”  
Nagato smiled and allowed his Sharingan to go back to their normal state, “They are similar to my original demands but with a few minor changes.”  
Nagato looked at the council he could see their chakra flows with his Sharingan, they were nervous, they were unsure of how to proceed and they felt unimaginable fear when they gazed upon him. The only one in that room who did not gaze at him with abject fear was the young Uchiha sitting beside him, Itachi. He was the only one in the entire village that would give Nagato pause if they were to fight, but Nagato did not want to fight this young man with so much potential.  
“Hiruzen-sama, firstly; you are to step down as Hokage and name a fifth Hokage to replace you by tomorrow at noon,” began Nagato.   
“Secondly, you are to publically acknowledge the Uzumaki clan as a member clan of Konoha and return all our properties we once owned in the village.”  
Hiruzen was nodding as Nagato made his demands.   
“Thirdly, you are to sit with me and explain everything to Naruto about what happened to his parents the night he was born and you are to beg for the boy’s forgiveness. Fourthly, you are to hand Danzo into my custody before this evening ends and you will allow me to do as I please with him.”  
Hiruzen looked at Danzo then, but his friend was merely staring at the wall next to him, his pride too strong to allow him to gaze upon the man whom was taking everything he had away from him.

 

Nagato drove on with his demands, “Finally you are to name a person of my choosing to the position of Hokage and allow both myself and Fukagu to act as personal advisors to the new Hokage.”  
Hiruzen was tired, he was tired of being Hokage, he was tired of the stress and the pain it caused him and was going to name either Jiraiya or Tsunade as Hokage in a few years, but he would have to listen to this new leader of the Uzumaki clan and name someone of his choosing. He heaved a sigh and asked Nagato the fateful question, “Whom would you have me name as the new Hokage?”  
Nagato smiled then, he had won this, ‘Konoha Civil War’, before a drop of blood was spilled and now he was going to give Konoha someone that would truly do anything to protect the village and its people from harm.

 

“I would like you to name,” Nagato began, a smile creeping onto his face, “Itachi Uchiha as the fifth Hokage of Konoha.”  
The council was stunned, but not outraged, that was good, they might accept someone as caring for the village as Itachi as their new Hokage. They all looked at the young man who was now standing next to Nagato, the chair he occupied now on the floor, Itachi had activated his own Mangekyou Sharingan and the kunai in his right hand was at Nagato’s throat, ready to slit it if he so much as moved in a threatening way.  
“What are you playing at?” asked Itachi in a barely audible whisper, confusion and frustration making the young man’s body tremble. He was crying, despite his face being a mask of indifference. Nagato activated his own Mangekyou Sharingan and turned his head to look Itachi in the eyes, man to man, Sharingan to Sharingan and heart to heart.   
“Why are you doing this?” asked Itachi, his voice now quivering with emotion.

 

Nagato answered Itachi in a soft, comforting and reassuring voice, “My Mangekyou Sharingan have gifted me with foresight. I have foreseen many things with these Sharingan, things that are, things that could be and things that will be. I have looked into your future many times, since I first heard of your promotion to Jonin and to ANBU from your father. I looked at what will come if you do not move from the path that you are currently walking and all that I can see in your future is pain, unbearable and incurable pain. I watched what would have happened if you had undertaken the mission that Danzo the Sharingan thief would have given to you. He would have made you slaughter your entire clan; man, woman and child. It brought me to the verge of madness just watching what he would have made you do.” Nagato’s face was also streaming with tears now, “I may have not met you or your clan face to face, but over the last few years I have come to know you from afar, you, Sasuke, your father, mother and many others in your clan. I have grown to love them and hold them dear to my heart, not just because I share blood with you, but because you are all worthy of being loved. Itachi, you have never thought only for yourself, you have only ever thought about what you need to do to protect those you love and Konoha itself. You do not deserve the fate that Danzo and Hiruzen-sama had in store for you. A young man like you, with a heart as good and a soul as pure and kind as yours does not deserve to be disgraced and hated, you deserve to be loved, adored and admired.”

 

Itachi surprised Nagato then, the young Uchiha dropped his kunai and seemed to fall forward, but all he did was grab a hold of Nagato and hug him with all his might. Nagato, tears still wet and hot on his face stood to make the hug less awkward and held the sixteen year old tightly to his chest. Itachi sobbed into Nagato’s chest, relief and joy washing over his entire being. In Itachi’s eyes he didn’t care if Nagato was a complete stranger, he had saved Itachi from committing a heinous act of brutality.  
Still holding Itachi, Nagato looked towards the council, Mangekyou Sharingan fully charged and ready for action and said in a level voice, “What you were about to make this boy do was a crime that none of you would ever have committed yourselves, but you were willing to give him the mission of destroying all that he loves in this world. You have our terms, either you accept them in the next few minutes or you can face the might of the Mangekyou Sharingan.”  
Itachi had stopped sobbing, but was still in Nagato's embrace, his face buried in Nagato's chest. The tension in the room was so thick it could be cut with a knife, the council were staring Nagato down, looking for the slightest sign of weakness, but they would find none. Nagato was sure of himself and his cause; he would not allow his family to die needlessly. The council was still staring at him minutes later when Itachi had disentangled himself from Nagato and was now standing next to him as though the two of them were close family.

 

Nagato became impatient and made his decision, “Time is up, what is your answer?” He looked Hiruzen dead in the eyes ready for battle if need be.  
Hiruzen answered then, “It appears that we have no choice, we will agree to your demands and…”  
Unfortunately for the council, Danzo had other ideas; he had thrown the bandages covering his left eye away and was now showing off his stolen Sharingan for the world to see. He was charging at Nagato, kunai at the ready and Sharingan powered up to full strength. Itachi tensed at Nagato’s side and seemed ready for a fight. What Danzo didn’t expect was Nagato to put him under a genjustu nearly instantly, “Mangekyou Sharingan!” shouted Nagato, his eyes glowing bright with chakra as Danzo fell to his knees in front of him and dropped his kunai. Nagato knelt down to grab Danzo by the chin and force his head up.   
“I take it that you agree to my terms?” asked Nagato, his eyes not leaving Danzo’s. 

 

Hiruzen was the one to answer him, “Yes we do, and we do this to both strengthen and protect Konoha.”  
“Good,” said Nagato a smile on his lips, but the smile suddenly died. “Now, bear witness to what happens to those that wrong the clans Uzumaki and Uchiha,” Nagato said, bringing his right hand up to Danzo’s right eye and charging his fingers with chakra. There was an ear-splitting scream from Danzo as Nagato removed the Sharingan. He stood up then, holding the Sharingan up to the light as if inspecting it and smiled,   
“My student, Shisui, has been avenged.” He looked down at Danzo and focussed chakra in his eyes and said with conviction, “Amaterasu!”  
Danzo screamed as he was being burned away by the black flames, his body charring and his chakra disappearing from the world, Nagato saw the council look on in horror as Danzo died in agony. He then looked at Itachi and saw that the youth was staring at the burning body of Danzo, part horror, part amazement in his eyes.   
“Itachi, do you have Shisui’s left eye with you?” Nagato asked of the boy. Itachi looked bewildered for a few moments before he reached into his kunai bag and withdrew a chakra laced bottle. Inside the bottle was unmistakeably Shisui’s left Sharingan. Nagato took the bottle from Itachi and removed the Sharingan, discarding the bottle into the small amount of still burning Amaterasu on Danzo’s corpse. He looked at Itachi again, “I am now able to give you a gift of unimaginable power, a power that will, in time, make you every bit my equal and may even allow you to surpass me in the future. I will teach you everything I taught to Shisui and more, I will teach you the ways of the Sharingan and the Mangekyou Sharingan. However, in order for you to learn those powers I must fuse Shisui’s Sharingan with your own and we must do it now. I can already feel Shisui’s chakra fading in the Sharingan.”

 

Itachi looked perplexed and worried for a few seconds, “As in right now?” he asked while looking at the council.  
Nagato drove on, “Yes, right here and right now, the Sharingan you possessed is already nearly drained of chakra. Let Konoha’s council bear witness to the securing of your future power.” Itachi looked at the not completely destroyed corpse of Danzo and then back at Nagato and nodded his assent.   
Nagato gently took Itachi’s chin in his left hand and both of Shisui’s Sharingan in his right hand. Charging both his hand and the disembodied Sharingan with his chakra, he pushed them into Itachi’s Sharingan. The boy shook in pain for several seconds as the two sets of Sharingan fused, however, when Nagato removed his hand from Itachi's eyes he was greeted with something that he only ever saw in the mirror, an eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. 

 

Nagato smiled, he now had an heir to his legacy, someone with the talent to surpass him in his use of the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.  
“Come Itachi,” said Nagato, “we have some good news for your father and the rest of your clan.” With those words, Nagato turned to leave, Itachi following close behind him. Nagato refused to look at the council as they left, preferring to keep his eyes facing forward and his mind on the new task at hand, gathering the supporters of the coup and speading the good news.  
“Itachi, take my hand,’ he said to the youth. The boy looked somewhat perplexed, but did as he was told. Nagato focussed his chakra in his Mangekyou Sharingan and said, “Kamui.” The two were sucked into a vortex that appeared before them and reappeared right in the middle of the Uchiha estate.  
Itachi opened his eyes to the sight of the full might of the Uchiha clan gathered just inside the estate’s main gate, ready to charge into battle at a moment’s notice. Itachi saw his father walk towards Nagato and ask, “Did it work? Were we successful?”  
“Fukagu, do you think I would be here without hostages if I had failed?” Nagato asked, sarcasm dripping from his words.  
Fukagu smiled then and embraced his distant kin briefly, “Then I must have the honour of being in the new Hokage’s presence,” stated Fukagu with a smile.  
Nagato looked thoughtful for a few moments, “I suppose you do have that honour, but it is not me who will be the new Hokage.” Fukagu looked somewhat perplexed at Nagato's words, however, Nagato revelling in his own shrewdness gestured towards Itachi, “Members of the Uchiha and Uzumaki clans, may I present the fifth Hokage of Konohagure, Itachi Uchiha!”

 

There was a stunned silence among the clan members for a few seconds and all eyes were on Itachi, but then a single clap broke the dam and all the people in the estate’s square erupted in applause and victorious shouts. Fukagu rushed to his son’s side and hugged him tightly, Itachi’s mother ran up to them next and eventually the young man was hoisted up onto the shoulders and arms of the crowd and being tossed into the air. All the while the crowd were chanting, louder and louder, “Itachi! Itachi! Itachi!”  
Their voices were being carried into the night and waking some of the villagers with their indomitable joy and happiness. Nagato was moved to his own tears of joy as his own clansmen joined the festivities and praised Itachi simply because the Uchiha clan’s joy was so intense and infectious that they could not resist. Nagato was overjoyed himself, all the horrendous premonitions he had received thanks to his Mangekyou Sharingan and its unique abilities were fading in his mind, the path that would have led to them slowly disappearing before his mind’s eye and being replaced with something all the better.

 

Tomorrow would be a day of celebration for everyone in the Uchiha clan and all their allies, but tonight he had one other duty that he had to perform. He needed to go to his nephew and claim him as the rightful member of the Uzumaki clan that he was. Nagato’s joy died down somewhat, thinking of his beloved sister only made his heart ache and tears were brimming in his eyes. To avoid having to answer any questions and not to put a downer on the jubilance, he quietly slipped away from the crowd and the now beaming Itachi to make his way to where his nephew was being kept. It was time for him to meet the only part of his sister that he had left, a little boy who was desperate for some love and attention.


	2. Naruto Uzumaki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagato meets his Nephew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's the second chapter, it may be a bit short, but it has lots of feels, enjoy!

Nagato stood outside the door of the small one room apartment that his nephew had been given. Though calling it an apartment was a stretch, especially by Nagato’s standards. The building was in an older and somewhat derelict part of Konoha, it looked to have been an old warehouse that had been renovated into an apartment building some years ago. Since then, however, it seemed little had been done to the place in the way of maintenance. Nagato fumed again at the negligence of the current Hokage and his advisors, leaving his precious nephew to live in a hovel like this while they lived in luxury.  
He had sent four men disguised as Konoha ANBU members to secure Naruto, two at the entrance to the apartment and two in the trees outside the window. When he had arrived at the apartment door, his two men saluted him as he stopped to stand in front of the door.  
“Report,” ordered Nagato, his voice as stoic and unmoving as ice. 

 

The man to Nagato’s right spoke, “Nagato-sama, Naruto- chan is like any other seven year old boy, except for the fact that he can cook for himself as well as wash his own clothes. He seems to be fairly happy, but appears to be exceptionally lonely. At precisely 19:21 he cooked himself a basic meal of ramen soup and noodles, he then proceeded to bath himself and get ready for bed at 19:54. At 20:22 he climbed into bed and was soundly asleep by 20:36. We have kept a close eye on him in the four hours since then.”  
Nagato nodded at his clansman’s report and spoke, “Good work, you two are to join our comrades outside to keep watch while I wake up and retrieve my nephew. Report any suspicious persons to me immediately; I do not want to risk losing my nephew when I’m so close to finally meeting him.”

 

The two men stood at attention and said a quick, “Osu!” before disappearing into a cloud of smoke. The moment of truth had finally come, he was about to meet his little sister’s son, someone he had long been waiting to meet. He took a deep breath and rapped on the door three times, waited a few seconds and rapped on the door another three times. He heard what sounded like a moan come from inside the room, followed by several thumping and groggy sounding footsteps before the door finally opened a crack.  
A very blonde little boy with eyes as blue and beautiful as the sky opened the door while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What’s the big idea mister, knocking on my door while I’m sleeping, that’s rude you-know.” Said the seven year old with a quite a bit of sleepy irritation.  
Nagato snickered at his nephew’s bravery; sticking up to a man four times his size in the middle of the night was certainly a major feat for a five year old. Nagato decided to press on with his plan, “Hello, my name is Nagato. Your name is Naruto Uzumaki, right?”  
The little boy looked stunned for a second, and then narrowed his eyes at Nagato with suspicious intent. “Who’s asking?” questioned Naruto, his stance changing to a defensive one.

 

This little boy already had a fairly shrewd mind for a seven year old, so Nagato decided to tease him a little, “No one too important, just his uncle come back to the village to take care of him, nothing special.”  
The little boy could barely contain his shock and the flash of hope that sparked in his chakra. “You aren’t lying, are you mister?” asked Naruto with a pleading look in his young eyes. Nagato could stand it no longer; he had to tell his nephew the truth, “No I’m not lying to you, Naruto-chan. He’s here to meet you right now.”  
Naruto gazed up and down the corridor, looking for someone, but he found no one else other than himself and Nagato. After a few seconds of frantically searching the corridor with his eyes, realisation dawned on him and he spared no time in flinging himself at Nagato with all his seven year old might and hugged him for all his worth, the little boy quickly beginning to cry with joy.  
“Where have you been? I’ve been so lonely!” sobbed Naruto, his tears staining Nagato’s over shirt. Nagato held his nephew close to him and carried him into the small apartment behind them. What he saw inside the apartment didn’t surprise him at all, the place was a mess. Clothes were strewn left and right; dirty plates and cups littered the floor and the place was actually quite dirty. Nagato was momentarily angered by the sight, how could the Hokage allow Konoha’s only Jinchuriki to live in squalor?  
Nagato set his nephew down on the bed and with a deep sigh, sat next to him, “Naruto, I've come here to tell you about a few things, very important things about you, and your mother and father.”

 

 

Naruto rubbed his eyes, obviously tired, but the determination to stay awake and talk to this new stranger drove him on. He looked at Nagato, tears brimming in his eyes and said, “People say that mommy and daddy died because of me and that they loved the village more than they loved me. A mean old man told me once that they put the evil monster inside of me because they wanted to punish me.”  
Nagato took in a big breath to calm himself and looked Naruto dead in the eyes, “Naruto-chan, they are all liars! Your mommy and daddy loved you more than they loved anything in the world; they died trying to protect you and the village. Your mommy was my little sister and I know that she would never have abandoned you if she could help it. She loved you with all her heart; she sent me so many letters before you were born about how happy she was that she was going to have a little boy. She told me all of her hopes and dreams for you and much more, but she never got to see you because she died to protect you and Konoha.”  
Naruto looked at his uncle, tears falling down his face; his sky blue eyes searched his uncle’s merlot red eyes for any signs of deceit, but found none. Naruto’s head then fell into his hands and he began to sob uncontrollably, his small frame wracked by his sobs. Nagato reached out with both his arms and gathered his nephew into his arms and hugged him close to his chest, rocking slightly back and forth and making gentle shushing sounds.  
“Don’t cry my boy,” said Nagato, his own face streaked with tears, “your mommy wouldn’t want you to be sad…”  
It was then that Naruto pushed himself away from his uncle ever so slightly, just enough to look him in the eyes. His face still streaked with falling tears, Naruto told his uncle, “Oji-chan, I’m not sad, I’m happy. I’m so happy that when my mommy died, she knew I wouldn’t be alone and that you would be there to look after me and love me. I’m so happy that I’m not alone anymore, you know.”  
Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath and upon opening them, Nagato was treated to a sight that he had only heard of in legends, the Ao (blue) Sharingan.

 

Nagato gasped in surprise, the blue Sharingan was a legend among Sharingan users for generations upon generations. It had been foretold that if a person were to awaken their Sharingan with an incredibly powerful positive emotion, their Sharingan would manifest to be as blue as the sky. Nagato was not the only one to notice the change; Naruto was taken aback by the new world that had been thrust upon him by his unknown Sharingan that he had inherited from his mother.  
Nagato stared in awe at his nephew’s eyes, his heart leaping into his throat and his mind racing with the possibilities. His nephew had inherited some Uchiha genes and chakra after all. He hugged his nephew briefly and activating his own Sharingan said, “Don’t be afraid, I have them too, but mine are different from yours.” Nagato looked around the room and saw a small mirror on the table next to the bed, he moved with his nephew in his arms so that the two of them could gaze into the mirror. “Want to see?” asked Nagato with a smile on his face.  
Naruto nodded and turned to look at their respective reflections, he gazed at himself and his uncle, mesmerised by their eyes. After a few moments of looking between the two reflections, Naruto asked his uncle, “Why are yours red and mine are blue?”  
Nagato was pleased by his nephew’s keen curiosity, it would do him well to hone it, “That’s because they only awaken when you feel a very powerful bad emotion, like grief or sadness, but if you awaken them using emotions that are good, like elation and joy, the nature of it changes. If the emotion is bad, then they are red, if the emotion is good, then they are blue.”

 

Naruto nodded as if he understood every word his uncle had said to him and then yawned massively and rubbed his eyes. When he moved his hands away from his eyes they had returned to normal again. Nagato deactivated his own Sharingan and turned towards the bed, “I think that it is time for you to go back to bed my boy,” he said caringly and gently placed Naruto onto the bed and covered him up with the blanket.  
“But I don’t want to go to bed,” complained the youth, “I want to go with you.”  
Nagato smiled broadly and said, “Don’t worry about that, I will be here first thing tomorrow morning and we can pack your things, but in the meantime I will have my men keep watch over you. That way you can sleep tight.” Nagato moved to give Naruto a quick kiss on the forehead and said, “Goodnight my boy, sleep well.” He then moved towards the little apartment’s door and as he was about to leave he heard a groggy and murmured, “Goodnight Oji-chan, I love you.” That froze Nagato dead in his tracks, he slowly turned his head and looked at his already sleeping nephew and whispered, “I love you too.”  
Nagato then left the apartment and shut the door soundlessly behind him, he then collapsed with his back against the opposite wall with his head in his hands, and he sobbed. He sobbed uncontrollably, tears falling from his eyes in rivulets. He let all of his grief hit him, the pain of having to leave his precious little sister behind, losing his cousins to disease, seeing his father murdered before his eyes and then having to watch his mother fight to near death to defend him, holding his dying mother in his arms, seeing her remove her Sharingan and place them within his own, writing to his little sister about how their parents had died and then before being able to give her the news and hearing of her death had been too much. He had lived in a cesspool of despair, hate and anger for years now and it had eaten at him, sapped his soul away and had weighed heavily on his shoulders. Now, as his tears flowed from his eyes, it seemed that they carried all his grief, his anger, his despair and his hate with them.  
It seemed that his nephew had awoken something inside Nagato that night; he thought he had long lost the feeling of belonging to something bigger than himself. His nephew, however, had rekindled that feeling in his very soul and had brought him out of that cesspool of despair he had been languishing in. It was liberating to feel so light, so joyful, and so safe. It was bizarre, Nagato knew, but for some reason, connecting with his only living direct family made him feel safe, like being in his mother’s arms all those years ago.

 

“Nagato-sama,” a concerned voice from nearby called. Nagato looked up from his hands towards the voice and two of his men had returned to the corridor.  
“I’m alright,” he said, standing up, “how are things looking out there?”  
The guard to his right spoke up, “Quiet and peaceful, no movement from any ANBU members or much of anything else actually.”  
Nagato was pleased; it seemed all resistance had fled the council once he had eliminated Danzo, the head of the proverbial snake that was the ANBU. “Excellent, then our other plans can be accelerated,” said Nagato, a smile appearing on his face as he turned to leave the building with his two guards.  
Making their way down the steps to the exit of the apartment building, Nagato and his guards were silent. The two men behind Nagato were careful not to overstep their bounds with their boss and thus were silent about his nephew.  
“I expect to see you two here when I arrive to bring Naruto to the Uzumaki Estates on the other side of Konoha. That is when I shall prepare him for the ceremony that will inaugurate Itachi as the heir to the Hokage position tomorrow afternoon. Keep an eye out for any suspicious activity; I do not want to risk losing my nephew, especially after I've met him.”

 

Nagato’s mind went straight to the revelation of Naruto’s Ao Sharingan awakening, something that Nagato had thought was a myth until this evening. He would have to consult Fukagu and the other elders of the Uchiha clan in order to ascertain what the appearance of the Ao Sharingan might mean. His gift of foresight had not given him any premonitions concerning any of Naruto’s natural born abilities other than his usual Uzumaki traits such as his longevity and his massive chakra reserves, but Naruto developing the Ao Sharingan and with so little Uchiha blood in his veins was indeed miraculous.  
Nagato broke his momentary reverie and focused back on his men, “Stay alert and keep my nephew safe or you will be sorry you were ever born.” With that statement, Nagato activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and gazed at each of the two guards. The two men shouted a clumsy, “Osu!” before disappearing into the darkness of the night. Nagato himself leapt into the air and onto the rooftops of Konoha and began to rush towards his family’s old estate here in Konoha. It took him some time before he was able to see the old building from a distance; it was now in a less than ideal location.  
The development around the estate had mired the views of the village and the surrounding forest and the estate itself looked to be completely abandoned. Ivy grew along the outer walls of the estate and its reinforced gate looked to be rusted shut. Nagato took one final leap and was finally at the entrance to the estate, the gate was maybe twice his height and would need quite a few men to prise it open without infusing chakra. Instead Nagato took the easy way out and simply jumped over the outer wall and into the estate’s front plaza. 

 

He looked around at what were once beautiful gardens full of exotic flowers and blossoming Sakura trees. The trees were there and in bloom, but they had gone somewhat wild and the garden looked almost like a forest itself. There were many rose bushes scattered throughout the once beautiful gardens, but they all had gone wild and there were barely any roses among them. Nagato continued to survey the gardens as he walked up towards what was once the home of his little sister. He looked at the ancient koi-pond that had run for decades, now run dry with its fish long gone, the bridge over the massive pond decaying and falling in on itself.  
His sandals crunched as he walked through the dry mud at the bottom of the shallow area of the pond and squelched in some still moist mud. He exited the pond with a short leap and landed just before the porch of the main house. The building looked derelict and dirty, the varnish on its wooden beams worn thin, its paint peeling off and its porch dusty. Nagato supposed that it was a far cry from what it used to look like under his sister’s watchful care and loving heart. His chest ached for his family again, but to chase away that grief, he focused on the shining sun that was Naruto, his beloved nephew.  
Nagato took in a deep breath and for the first time in his entire life he could honestly say the words, “I am finally home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading and thank you to kittkatt107 and TSadras for leaving Kudos. Its much appreciated!


	3. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagato realises that Konoha has far greater threats than that of Danzo Shimura...

Nagato woke with a start, something sharp was pecking at his hand, and it was a dove that was looking for bread crumbs. With a flick of his wrist, he chased the dove away and stretched his arms out above his head. He had fallen asleep while meditating on the porch of the once great Uzumaki Estate’s house, not exactly where he had planned to spend the night, but he had slept in worse places before. Standing up, he realised that sleeping against a wall had made his back very stiff and knotted up and he was in desperate need of a good shower.

 

Nagato looked east, the only part of the estate’s view that was not marred by the developments around its boundaries. The sun was rising on a crystal clear spring morning and Nagato was truly impressed by the sight. The light of the rising sun was mixing together with the last darkness of night into a kaleidoscope of orange and purple hues. He had seen many sunrises in his time, but Nagato thought that this sunrise was the most beautiful he had seen in years. It was the first sunrise in a long line of sunrises that he would greet with family being nearby and within his reach.

 

Nagato took in a deep breath and was immediately embarrassed by what he smelled, himself, he really did need a shower. He thought about going into the old estate and trying to use one of the showers in the house, but reason caught up to him and he realised that after not being in use for five years, the pipes were likely rusted and useless. He resigned himself to renting a room at one of Konoha’s few hotels until he could get the estate back into a liveable condition. Nagato took one step off the porch of the manor house, laced the soles of his feet and his leg muscles with chakra and made a mighty leap.  
He landed in the street just outside the walls of the estate and made another leap, this one aimed towards the plaza close to the village centre, where the best hotel in the village was situated. The hotel had a small casino in its basement where the first Hokage had spent much of his retirement wasting away his pension funds and the hotel took its name from him, ‘The Harshirama Hotel and Casino.’ Nagato made it to the centre of the village in a few minutes, leaping all the way, purging his muscles of their stiffness. It was barely dawn, thus the village plaza was deserted, except for a pair of bickering street sweepers whom were going about their business.

 

Nagato made his way to the hotel, its gleaming neon sign flashing in the still low light of early morning. The hotel was not very large, but was relatively luxurious for a Shinobi village hotel. Its foyer was decorated spartanly, yet with a distinct charm that indicated that the owner was very much in love with his hotel. It had flame designs painted on the walls as murals and the windows were the shape of the Uzumaki clan symbol that adorned the uniform of every shinobi in the village. Nagato would have to get used to seeing his family crest used so liberally, it was a great honour to be remembered as such dear friends of Konoha.  
Nagato made his way to the reception desk to book a suit, but was greeted by the sight of a sleeping receptionist with her glasses askew. He laughed, despite himself and his chuckle woke the dozing receptionist. She was quite dazed for a few seconds before noticing Nagato and waking up fully in a few moments, “I’m so sorry sir!” she blurted out as she straightened her shirt and glasses. “How can I help you?” she asked just after clearing her throat.  
Nagato smiled then and asked politely, “Do you possibly have a suit for two that is available for the next two weeks?”  
The young woman looked taken aback by what Nagato had asked, but quickly went about opening her bookings book and turned a few pages. She frowned and said with a little disappointment, “It appears we only have the penthouse suit available, it sleeps three people in separate rooms, has an adjoined bathroom to each bedroom, and comes with a rooftop garden and a double swing chair.”

 

Nagato asked the obvious question, “How much is it per night?”  
The receptionist did some maths in her head and then answered, “Five thousand ryo a night sir.”  
Nagato grimaced, it was expensive, even by his standards, but it couldn’t be helped.  
“Alright, I’ll take it,” he said with a slightly embarrassed look on his face, “Do I pay upfront or at the end of my stay?”  
The receptionist looked him up and down as if he were a worm that was wiggling at her, “You pay half upfront and the other half at the end of your stay.”  
Nagato unzipped his coat and pulled out his wallet. He quickly extracted the thirty five thousand ryo in five thousand ryo notes and handed them to the receptionist. He only noticed her nametag then, “So your name is Yui? That’s quite the nice name.”  
The receptionist nodded her head and said, “Thank you sir. Might I ask for your name?”  
Nagato answered truthfully, “Nagato Uzumaki.”

 

Yui froze momentarily and then asked while filling in Nagato’s details, “You aren’t related to that troublemaker that lives in the industrial district are you?”  
That irritated him, partly because this girl was judging his nephew despite his circumstances and that she was quick to look down on him if he were related to Naruto. Nagato decided to answer truthfully and activate his Mangekyou Sharingan as well, “Yes, I’m his uncle. Do you have a problem with that?”  
Yui froze in fear of his eyes and slowly moved her head from side to side, indicating a negative.  
“Good, because that troublemaker is going to be staying here with me while I have the old Uzumaki estate refurbished and from now on you shall refer to my nephew and myself as Uzumaki-sama. Is that clear?”  
Yui just nodded her head as Nagato spoke; she was too much in fear of his Mangekyou to move.  
“Good, now I would like the keys to my suit Yui and if I hear of you or anyone else treating my nephew badly or berating him without just cause you will have to deal with me, is that clear?”

 

Yui handed Nagato his keys and stood to bow in front of him, “I’m sorry Uzumaki-sama, you won’t hear from me or any of the staff unless it’s necessary.”  
“I would have continued to be civil with you, but you did the one thing I cannot abide by and that is insulting or disrespecting my family,” said Nagato, his face a mask of contempt, “especially since Naruto is all the family I have left in the world.” With those words said, Nagato left Yui alone in the foyer and began to climb the stairs to the penthouse suit he had booked for himself and his nephew. He would have to use the curse marks he had personally put onto each of his men’s backs when they first joined up with him.   
These marks were no ordinary curse marks, however, they allowed him to send a short telepathic ping to his men and that would indicate his location to them. Depending on the intensity of the ping, his men would either come running to his position or simply begin to patrol around his location. He sent out the latter of these two pings and got small resonances from his men as a response, all of them moving about the village in disguise. He had spent a few weeks before his arrival inserting his men strategically into Konoha’s populous; they would have to reveal themselves as his men as soon as Hiruzen-sama announced the return of the Uzumaki clan.  
Nagato came to the suit’s entrance on the tenth floor before long and unlocked the door. Upon entering the suit, he was pleasantly surprised by the suit. It was sumptuously decorated with flames painted on the walls and along the pillars; it put the rest of the hotel to shame with its luxury. The bedrooms all had double beds and a fully equipped bathroom each, with a large Jacuzzi bath and a large shower that shot water from three different angles. The garden terrace was beautiful as well; it had a small Sakura tree in a large square pot and numerous other plants that Nagato had no name for; the double swing was situated just under the Sakura tree and looked out towards the west in order for guests to enjoy the sunset.  
But that would have to wait for another time, all that concerned Nagato at that point was climbing into a shower and scrubbing himself clean. He would have to get one or two of his men to bring his belongings to the hotel so he could get dressed and attend the town council meeting scheduled for noon. He was not worried about the meeting, there might be some resistance to his claim of being the leader of the Uzumaki clan, but he had DNA tests and identification documents that proved his heritage and his claims to the old Uzumaki holdings.

However, thinking about the meeting would only stress him out, so instead, Nagato decided to strip down and have his long awaited shower. He walked calmly towards the master bedroom’s bathroom and began to get undressed, after removing his over shirt and his wire mesh undercoat, he preceded to turn on the shower. He had always enjoyed particularly hot showers and baths, even as a child. It was the same with his late parents and even his late sister. It might have been a family thing, but Nagato never really paid that any mind.  
After getting the water to his preferred temperature, Amaterasu hot, he stripped the last of his clothing and climbed under the water. Almost immediately he was relaxed, the water washing away all of his stresses and worries. He scrubbed himself thoroughly and washed and conditioned his hair, some of the brown dye washing out and showing strands of his red hair. It pleased Nagato that the dye washed out so easily, especially since he had been dying his hair brown for years now. After washing himself, Nagato relaxed in the shower, allowing the water to wash over him.

 

It was in that moment that his Mangekyou Sharingan activated on their own and a vision began to play before his very eyes. It was dark and damp where he was, the only light coming from a single lantern perched next to a large armchair. Some sat in the armchair with a massive book and was reading intently, their long hair obscuring their face from Nagato’s sight. He focussed on the person’s chakra in order to determine their nature. What he found was something that truly disturbed and frightened him.  
The chakra was cold and it pulsed with malice and hunger. The person that possessed that chakra was indeed a very lost and twisted soul, their thirst for more power the only human emotion that allowed them to cling to their diminishing humanity. Nagato closed the distance to the person, intent on seeing their face. In his visions, the people he saw, very rarely sensed his presence and never actually saw him. That was why when the person looked him directly in the eyes, Nagato was shell shocked.  
The person’s eyes were glowing a bright yellow and their pupils were slit like a snake’s and they weren’t looking through Nagato, they were looking right at him. The snake eyed man stood from his armchair and allowed the book to fall to the floor, paying it no mind. It was then that they shed their arms and legs and grew tall, nearly twice Nagato’s height. Then with a hiss and roar, the person lunged at him. Nagato jumped out of the way, despite the fact that he was an astral-projection. He turned to get one final look at the snake man and saw that the snake’s body was white as milk and streaked in purple scales.

 

At that moment, just before the snake man could lunge at him again, Nagato retreated back to his own body. He opened his eyes and bursting out of the shower, he began to frantically search the bathroom for a robe. When he found a robe he closed his eyes and activated the curse mark on his lieutenants, summoning them to the hotel in order to speak with them, something big was coming to Konoha and it was not something that Nagato wanted to face unprepared.  
He would have to tell the current Hokage about this and the leaders of his allied clans, but first he would make sure that the boundaries of the village were secured and reinforced with his and Fukagu’s men. A gut feeling told Nagato that an attack on Konoha was imminent and would come within a few hours or a few days. He didn’t know when exactly, but when their unknown enemy came, they would bring untold destruction to Konoha and Nagato was not going to let them get away with that, not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. The Council

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Politics can be violent and dangerous...

Konoha’s official council chambers were filled to bursting with representatives of all of Konoha’s affiliate clans. All of them shouting and arguing over the recent developments and changes to Konoha's leadership structure, some were even outraged at hearing of Danzo’s summary execution at Nagato’s hands. However, Fukagu and Nagato had not entered into their venture lightly and with the help of Nagato’s silver tongue and the greasing of a few palms, the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans had managed to cobble together a strong alliance within Konoha’s council.

Nagato had managed to get seven of the fourteen clans in Konoha to support himself and Fukagu. Altogether, he had the support of the; Hatake, Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Kurama and the Inuzuka clans. With the added strength of the Uchiha and his newly restored Uzumaki clan, they had the marginal majority on the Konoha council. Unfortunately, that did not necessarily guarantee that his claim was going to be universally accepted by all the clans, especially the Shimura and Sarutobi clan, both of whom stood to lose the most if the Uchiha took the Hokage seat in the next few years.

 

The Shimura clan had already lost Danzo to Nagato’s political blitzkrieg on the leadership of Konoha and stood to lose their command over Konoha’s ANBU branch if they did not accept a power sharing agreement or allowed the Hokage to have a more direct hand the ANBU’s operation. However, that was not Nagato’s primary concern, right at that moment; he was trying to have the council formally recognise the return of the Uzumaki clan to their holding in Konoha. So far, he had been successful, but he still required eight out of thirteen of the recognised clans to vote ‘yes’ in order to solidify his claims.

 

So far he had seven; all he needed was one of the only two undecided clans to vote yes, either to Aburame clan or the Sarutobi clan. The Aburame clan was sympathetic to his cause of returning his clan to Konoha, but they would not vote on the matter unless DNA evidence was supplied to corroborate his claims. That was when Nagato had freely offered to give his blood in order for a DNA test to be administered. A medical shinobi quickly arrived from Konoha Hospital and took the blood, rather roughly, from Nagato’s arm. The medic did not miss Nagato’s glare as he left the Council Chamber.

 

Nagato had also spent an hour scrubbing out the brown dye from his auburn hair and had managed to return it fully to its natural state. He had also brought two of his distant clansmen that shared his red hair as it was customary of a council member to have, at most, two attendants from their clan as escorts for the duration of the Council meeting. The Council, however, would not stand idle and the current leader of the Hyuga clan, Hiashi, began to speak, Nagato was not entirely sure why the Hyuga clan was so vehemently opposed to the return of the Uzumaki clan, but he had decided that he did not like this pompous nobleman at all.

 

“Hokage-sama,” began Hiashi as the entire room turned their attention to him, “what does this supposed Uzumaki intend to do with the only other member of the Uzumaki clan and our only Jinchuriki once he has been instated as the leader and owner of all the Uzumaki holdings in Konoha?”  
Hiruzen regarded Hiashi with, tired, sagely eyes, “Hiashi-san that is a question which you should be directing towards Nagato-san, not me. Naruto is his nephew after all.”

 

Hiashi looked towards Nagato with a contemptuous flame in his eyes and asked in a condescending tone, “Well? What do you plan on doing?”  
Nagato looked at Hiashi with a calm smile upon his face, “I plan on taking him into my household and razing him as my own. That is something my dear sister and brother-in-law would have wanted, for Naruto to have a stable and strong family unit around him.” Nagato then closed his eyes and focussed on not losing his temper, “Not the poverty and enforced solitude that this very council has seen to. You dishonour my family name, you dishonour the memory of Minato Namikaze your fourth Hokage and you dishonour my dear little sister’s memory by scorning the only thing she could leave behind as a legacy, Naruto.”

 

That was when Nagato let his emotions get the better of him as he stood from his seat and knocked the chair behind him into the wall, smashing it.  
“All I want to do right now is completely let my anger take hold of me and kill the whole sorry lot of you and relish in your screams as you die, writhing in agony upon the floor as my genjustu slowly drives you all mad with pain.”  
Nagato then smashed his fist through the table in front of him, “That is what I wanted to do when I first heard of the way my sister and her family’s legacy was being treated, but I took a moment to clear my head and think. My sister loved Konoha so much that she gave up a long life with her son and her husband in order to save this place. Because of that, I will fight for Konoha and all that this village stands for, for the rest of my days.”  
Nagato had not noticed the tears on his face until he began to calm down, “That is why I decided to move my clan back to Konoha and not snatch my nephew away from the village and stay in hiding. I do this for the memory of my sister and all she held dear.”

 

That was when Nagato gestured to his eyes as he activated his Mangekyou Sharingan, “That is why I will now tell you what my eyes have shown me, because it will ensure the safety of my sister’s legacy.”  
Nagato looked around the room and saw that his little outburst had nearly caused a full blown fight to occur in the council chambers. Swords were drawn left and right, Fukagu and his men had their katana draw and their Sharingan blazing and the Hyuga had activated their Byakugan and had drawn their own weapons. Looking around the rest of the chamber, Nagato noticed that all the clans had readied themselves for a fight, he would have to calm the situation down somewhat or there could be a serious problem on their hands.

 

“That is why I have decided to tell you of an impending attack on Konoha,” Nagato began, “My visions have always come to pass unless I did something to stop them or change the course of events myself.” He gestured to the entire council, all ready to fight each other, “This disunity will only lead to the destruction of the village by this mysterious threat. I have already sent out fifty of my clansmen to patrol the outer limits of Konoha’s territory in order to screen the area of threats.”

 

The council slowly began to relax as Hiruzen asked Nagato, “Can you describe the threat that you saw in your vision?”  
Nagato was surprised to see that Hiruzen’s chakra flashed momentarily with an emotion, trust. He answered immediately, “The threat was a man that was slight of build, with black hair and milk whit skin, he was covered in purple tattoos and his chakra was cold and filled with malice. Finally, I saw his eyes at the end of the vision, they glowed yellow and had slits for pupils like a…”

 

However, before Nagato could finish what he was saying Hiruzen finished the sentence for him, “Snake.”  
Hiruzen seemed disturbed for a few moments, then anxious and finally, angry. He slammed his fist on his desk and swore loudly, “Shit, shit, shit! I knew he was a problem, but I did not think he would become such a dangerous threat so soon.”  
He relaxed and straightened his askew Kage hat. Nagato lifted an eyebrow and asked, “Do you know this man Hiruzen-sama?”  
Hiruzen then gestured to the entire council, “We all know of him, he is the only rogue member of the legendary sannin, Orochimaru.”

 

The council all nodded their heads in silent agreement; the threat facing the village dawning on them all, Nagato himself was actually horrified. He had dealt with Orochimaru before and he most certainly did not sense the level of evil that he felt in his vision when he last saw Orochimaru face to face.  
“Hiruzen-sama, I must confess that while myself and my clan were in hiding, we had dealings with Orochimaru-sama and I must inform you that the chakra I sensed in my vision was most certainly not his.”  
“Then whose could it be?” asked Fukagu, his eyes now back to normal.  
“Hiruzen-sama, I have a theory,’ began Nagato, “I do believe that the body I saw was most certainly Orochimaru-sama’s and I do now recall feeling a slight desperation in the chakra. I think that perhaps one of Orochimaru’s experiments might have gone wrong and he has been possessed by a remnant of an ancient spirit or perhaps even a demon.”

 

Hiruzen and the other council member looked at Nagato dubiously, all not quite sure how to take this bit of information. An idea then struck Nagato and he moved himself into the middle of the room, “I think I can show you all what I saw by casting a genjustu in this room and quite literally showing you what I saw. Do you all agree?”  
Some members of the council seemed to take a liking to the idea, even the Hokage, but some were not so happy.

 

“No, I will not stand for this!” shouted Hiashi Hyuga, “Hiruzen-sama, how can you bend to this scum’s will so easily?!”  
Both Nagato and Hiruzen snapped their heads towards Hiashi, Nagato feeling his temper flaring up and filling his chest, he activated his Mangekyou and stared Hiashi down, Hiashi responded by activating his Byakugan. “Hiruzen-sama, if you won’t remove this scum from the council chamber I will,” with those words, Hiashi charged at Nagato, the Uzumaki not moving in the slightest. Hiashi drew a dagger and made for Nagato’s neck. He never got even close to his target. Before he could react, Nagato appeared right in front of him, his near two metre stature towering over Hiashi. He deftly disarmed the Hyuga clan leader and lifted him into the air by his throat. Nagato’s eyes were glowing red by this point, his Sharingan at full strength and he was not in the mood to be forgiving, but he would give this pompous windbag one last chance to recant his statement.

 

“Hiashi-san,” began Nagato in a voice gone very quiet in order to keep him from shouting, “I would like you to apologise for your rude remark.”  
The Hyuga leader only coughed and spluttered in Nagato’s grasp, desperately clawing at the hand around his neck, however, Nagato simply increased the pressure on his neck and said while looking Hiashi directly in the eyes, “All it will take to kill you is a bit more pressure with my thumb, it will break your hyoid bone and pop your aorta, you will die nearly instantly. Every fibre of my being is screaming for me to kill you and leave your body strung up in front of your family manor house. So I’m going to ask one last time before I truly do lose my temper, apologise.”

 

Hiashi looked towards the Hokage and the other council members for help, but even his allies were reluctant to come to his aid with over half the council supporting this new Uzumaki. Nagato watched in silent glee as he saw the Hyuga leader swallow his pride and heard him wheeze out, “Please take my apologise Nagato-sama.”  
With those words, Nagato dropped the man and it seemed as though the entire council let out a universal breath of relief. Hiruzen looked at Hiashi with eyes that said a thousand words in an instant, the Hyuga leader looked as if he had been berated like a small child, but kept quiet.

 

“Nagato-san,” began Hiruzen, “please show us what you saw.”  
Nagato then quickly weaved some hand signs and cast his genjustu over the entire council, they saw everything he saw and he paid particular attention to focussing them all on the chakra that Orochimaru was exuding. Nagato could feel everything that the council was experiencing in his genjustu and noticed that they all felt fear, anger and some even felt hate. With the vision at an end Nagato released his genjustu and the council quickly returned to their senses, all still quite shocked at what they saw.

 

They all seemed visibly shaken by what they saw and felt coming from Orochimaru in the vision. The chakra that Orochimaru was an almost godly amount.  
“I see what you meant by inhuman chakra,” said Kakashi Hatake, Nagato’s ally, leader of the Hatake clan and Nagato’s former chief informant in ANBU. The council all nodded in agreement with Kakashi, his assessment having a large impact with the council.   
“What do you suppose it is Hiruzen-sama?” asked Fukagu Uchiha. Hiruzen was in deep contemplation, his eyes shut and his pipe expelling smoke at an alarming rate, he eventually answered in a resigned voice, “That was most certainly not Orochimaru’s chakra.”

 

The council seemed to be in agreement with this and all nodded or vocalised their assent. “Do we have a plan to deal with the threat he poses?” asked Choza Akimichi, worry creasing his face and making him look far older than he was. The council went on and on about plans to deal with Orochimaru for nearly an hour before the medical shinobi that took Nagato’s blood returned with the results. He handed the results directly to the Hokage, bowed and made a quick exit. Hiruzen read the results out loud, “It appears that the Uzumaki clan has a new head, with this evidence proving your lineage, the Sarutobi clan hereby votes to reinstate the Uzumaki clan as an ally and member of Konohagure.”

 

With that announcement, Nagato and his allies all shouted in victory, they were now secure in their positions within Konoha. Nagato was so excited he jumped into the air, but quickly regained his composure so as not to embarrass himself in front of the council. However, that piece of good news was interrupted by a loud explosion in the distance. The entire council fell silent for a few moments and another explosion was heard, this one slightly closer. Nagato sent out a ping using the curse marks on his men, the ping was questioning. Almost all his men sent the same ping back, ‘Danger, enemy sighted and advancing. Require immediate reinforcements!’

 

“It appears,” Nagato said, “that we do not have time to discuss strategy, our enemy has come to us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is named Susanno'o, let that sink in for a bit...


	5. Susanno'o

Explosions raked the forest around Konoha as the Uzumaki clansmen fought desperately to keep their enemy at bay, but they were outnumbered nearly five to one. Despite exacting horrendous losses on their enemy, they were shinobi with forehead protectors with a musical note engraved upon them and they were well trained and strong. Nagato was getting calls for help from every direction and was seriously concerned for his men. He had quickly dispatched the remaining one hundred and fifty of his clansmen to the battlefield and turned towards the council, whim were all busy co-ordinating their men to reinforce the Uzumaki clansmen that were already fighting.  
“Ladies and gentlemen, from what I can tell from the curse marks on my men is that there are roughly five hundred enemies that are attempting to encircle the village,” said Nagato after turning to face the rest of the council, “However, I believe that these men are merely a distraction for ‘Orochimaru’ to begin his own attack to where we will be weakest, the village’s front gate.”  
It was Fukagu that spoke up, “Then let’s not let him bait us, pull your men back to the village and force him into a frontal assault!”  
The rest of the council nodded in agreement, the combined power of all of Konoha’s shinobi would flatten any force Orochimaru would send against them, but Nagato had a better idea, “I have another course of action to propose,” the council all turned to face him then and he made his argument, “let us allow ‘Orochimaru’ to believe that we have taken his bait and send an overwhelming force to eliminate the attacking ninja forces while we leave the main gate nearly unguarded. I will lead a team made up of myself, Itachi Uchiha and the two remaining Legendary Sannin and lie in wait for him to make his move.”  
Nagato then lifted his hand to just in front of his face and made a fist, “Then the four of us will crush him.”  
“How would you know that you can crush this possession of Orochimaru with the Legendary Sannin at your side?” asked Hiruzen, “You have never fought at their side before, how would you support them or vice versa?”

Nagato merely smiled, “The Sannin will be there to aid in calling out the true spirit of Orochimaru and weaken the possessing power’s hold on their former colleague. With them distracting the focus of the aberration, Itachi and I should be able to subdue Orochimaru’s body and dispel the possession.”  
“You do realise that Orochimaru is one of the most powerful shinobi that Konoha has ever produced,” began Kakashi, “he is also one of the few S-rank rogue shinobi in the world. What do you intend to do in order to beat him?”  
Nagato looked at Kakashi and smile widely, “I plan on using mine and Itachi’s Susanno’o in order to overpower Orochimaru.”  
A look of worry and fear spread over Fukagu’s face, “But Itachi has not awakened his Susanno’o, and doing so before he is ready could kill him.”  
Nagato put a hand on Fukagu’s shoulder in a reassuring manner and said, “Your son has all the powers of Shisui residing within him and Shisui was a master of the Susanno’o. He will be able to awaken his Susanno’o under my guidance and in the next few minutes.”  
More explosions rattled the windows in their frames and dust fell from the ceiling, “Could someone get reinforcements to my men before they are overrun?!” shouted Nagato, now worried for the safety of his men. Hiruzen sent a messenger with his orders to over a thousand shinobi that would now surge into the battle. His men were soon to be saved and the possessed Orochimaru would fall right into their trap and be captured. 

Nagato then looked towards Fukagu and asked, “Where is Itachi?”  
The Uchiha seemed somewhat reluctant to tell Nagato of his son’s whereabouts, but quickly relented when Nagato raised a questioning eyebrow, “He should be at the manor house at the moment with the rest of the clan.”  
Nagato nodded and looked to the council one final time, “Ladies and Gentlemen, lets show these sons of bitches what it means to fuck with Konoha,” despite his foul language, the council was immediately electrified by Nagato’s words and let out a mighty shout and all charged out of the council buildings in order to join their troops on the battlefield. The only ones left in the room were Nagato, Fukagu and their guards. Nagato activated his Sharingan, as did Fukagu and his two guards and a silent message went between them. Nodding their heads, they all made for the Uchiha manor house at full speed, their bodies becoming nothing more than blurs as they infused their muscles with chakra and charged towards the Uchiha estates.

It took them only a few minutes to get to the manor house, but by then the battle in the forest had intensified greatly, hundreds of shinobi now clashing among the trees, their jutsu and the paper bombs causing explosions left and right. It appeared that Orochimaru’s forces were stronger than originally thought and they were pushing the Konoha Shinobi incredibly hard. Nagato looked towards Fukagu and nodded, the Uchiha leader standing tall and proud in front of his clan, he cleared his throat and began to speak,   
“Shinobi of the Uchiha clan, last night our future in Konoha was secured by our new allies and by my son Itachi. However, the solidity of that future is now at stake, a long time enemy of Konoha has returned with intension to destroy the village. He has attacked the village in force with a large army of shinobi and our fellow citizens of Konoha fight as we speak to combat this threat. They may have distrusted us greatly in the past, but today we shall show our loyalty to Konoha by aiding her defence with all our might! My fellow Uchiha, let us go forth and show these enemies how truly powerful the Uchiha clan is!”  
A mighty roar erupted from the gathered Uchiha shinobi and they all began to head to the battlefront, leaping, running and some even flying to Konoha's defence. Nagato was highly impressed by the Uchiha clan’s zeal for battle, but that was not his primary concern right now, he had to find Itachi and take the boy to the front gate before Orochimaru arrived, without the boy, Nagato was sure he would only be able to delay the for Legendary Sannin. He caught sight of Itachi as he was about to jump onto the roof of a building close to the Uchiha estate.  
Activating his Mangekyou, Nagato ran forward and grabbed Itachi by the shoulder to stop him, the young boy turned around and Nagato was treated to the fantastic sight of Itachi’s Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

 

The mix of Shisui's and Itachi’s visual prowess was astonishing to behold, all their powers were now combined in Itachi’s eyes now. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Nagato said, “Your place is not on the front my boy, you are far more important that being a grunt on the front line.”  
Itachi looked somewhat insulted by Nagato’s words, his face contorting into a displeased grimace when he spat out his venomous words, “Do you intend to keep me from going to fight because of your arrangements and plans for my future?”  
Nagato was slightly taken aback by Itachi’s fiery reaction, but quickly rephrased his words, “No, you and I are going to be the main attraction at this party, our place is at the main gate with the Legendary Sannin, I have some news about our attackers. They work with Orochimaru…”  
With those few words, Itachi launched himself towards the main gate, Nagato close behind him, “Itachi, slow down, I need to tell you the plan!”   
it took a few seconds for Nagato’s words to register with the young Uchiha, but he did slow down considerably, “What is the plan then?” asked Itachi as he came up next to Nagato. Itachi’s Mangekyou were now shining a bright red indicating that they were brimming with chakra. Pleased by this, Nagato charged ahead with his plan, explaining all that had transpired in his vision to the young Uchiha and at the end of his explanation he asked Itachi, “Do you know of the Susanno’o?”  
The young Itachi looked momentarily shocked before he nodded his head, a grim look crossing his face, “I have read of it.”  
“Good,” said Nagato, “do you know how it is manifested by those that wield the Mangekyou?”  
“One must look to their strongest emotions and memories and draw from them all the strength that they can,” answered Itachi, his face still grim.

 

“Indeed,” said Nagato, “for our plan to capture Orochimaru to work, you and I will have to use our respective Susanno'o to fight and disable him, while the Sannin restrain and dispel the being that possesses their former comrade.”  
The both of them were now coming up on the large plaza that was immediately behind Konoha’s main gate; the both of them landed in crouches nearly in the centre of the plaza and quickly stood up and went into their respective battle stances. Itachi drew his katana, the blade gleaming in the sunlight as Nagato marvelled at the craftsmanship. Nagato then lifted his right sleeve and activated a storage seal and his own large katana popped into his right hand, the both of them stared at the gate with fire gleaming in their eyes.  
“Remember Itachi, this being may look human, but he is most certainly not, whatever you do, do not show it any weakness, it will capitalise on that with great accuracy.” while saying this, Nagato’s eyes did not leave the gate, “I know you can sense it approaching the gate as we speak, its chakra signature is massive.” As if on cue, the gate began to shudder in its moorings, “When the battle is joined we will have to focus on restraining the creature, which means that you will have to unlock your Susanno'o on your own. This is a trial by fire; do not let it daunt you.”  
Itachi nodded as the gate began to shudder again as Itachi nodded his assent at Nagato, the both of them tensing up like coiled springs for the coming fight. The third time the gate shuddered was its last and the beast that was once Orochimaru charged through the now blasted gate. As the creature came into view Nagato weaved signs rapidly with his hands and opened with a jutsu, “Katon: flying flame bullets!”   
Taking in a deep breathe Nagato then released his momentarily held breath and his jutsu shot forward, three powerful blasts of compressed fire that would explode on contact with a target.

The snake-like beast dodged the first blast, deflected the second, but the third hit it directly in the chest, knocking it of kilter and sending it charging into a pile of debris. Nagato closed his eyes and called up all of his chakra, down to his very last reserves and bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Susanno’o!”  
At first it looked as if nothing had happened, then a dark-red aura began to expand outwards from Nagato’s body and began to take form. A crude ribcage was the first thing to materialise, next came four sets of arm bones on its sides and a skull, muscles and blood vessels began to grow and cover the bones, then the being grew legs and Nagato was taken into the head of Susanno’o as its helmet and armour grew. The entirety of the being that was a Susanno’o was made up of this dark-red chakra aura that exuded from Nagato’s body. In each hand of the Susanno’o was a long, brightly glowing, red scimitar and on its back were a pair of wings. The Susanno’o let out a mighty roar just as Orochimaru burst forth from the pile of debris and began to grow in size.

Eventually, Orochimaru had grown into a seven headed hydra, his entire body covered in purple and white scales and he was just slightly larger than Nagato’s Susanno’o. Orochimaru charged into Nagato’s Susanno’o only to be answered by two of the four scimitars slashing out and severing two of the seven heads. The other two scimitars held in the left hands of the Susanno’o melded together and formed a large tower shield, Nagato threw his shoulder behind the shield and his entire Susanno'o charged forward into Orochimaru's beast form just before the two stubs that remained of the two heads grew into four separate heads. Unfortunately Nagato was not fast enough to intercept the four new heads and they picked him up and threw him over the village gate and gave chase. Nagato landed his Susanno’o on its haunches and immediately braced to meet Orochimaru’s charge. The two colossal bodies clashed in a horrific way, tearing pieces of flesh and chakra away from the main body.

Itachi gazed at Nagato’s jutsu in awe, the chakra in his body calling out to be released from its crude prison within his cells. He closed his eyes and reached deeply within himself and drew up the memories of his past. Watching his best friend die, being ordered to kill his clan, Nagato coming to save him and being hailed as his clan’s new hero. Suddenly, all of the emotions those memories evoked within him turned into pure energy that screamed to be set free and Itachi gave into its wishes and allowed it to escape.  
A bright red aura began to envelop Itachi and take the form of a giant humanoid, it had four arms like Nagato’s Susanno’o, but Itachi noticed that his carried a large spear and a single large rounded shield. Itachi gave into the exhilaration of all the power that he had at his finger tips and let out a near hysterical laugh and began to charge towards Orochimaru’s exposed back. He quickly closed the distance to his target and managed to land a direct hit on the main body of the snake-hydra with his spear, causing the beast to roar in pain. Nagato too this opportunity to slice his way free of Orochimaru’s hold and kick the beast to the side, enabling him to join up with Itachi.  
Nagato let out a strained laugh, his breaths coming in deep heaves, “I’m glad you took to the Susanno’o so well, Shisui was right about your powers being great.” It was then that the beast that the two men were fighting turned around and began to charge them. 

“You go left, I go right!” shouted Itachi just before Orochimaru hit them with his charge. The two Susanno’o deftly avoided the charge and slammed into opposite sides of Orochimaru, skewering him with their blades and bashing him with their shields. The beast began to try and grab a hold of the two Susanno’o, but they jumped away just in time to avoid being entangled. Nagato looked at his Susanno’o blades and was horrified to see that his prediction of demonic possession was correct.  
The blood coming from Orochimaru’s beast form was black and acidic, eating away at his Susanno’o chakra; he looked towards Itachi and saw that he two was suffering from being spattered with the black fluid. They had to finish this fight and quickly if they were going to win it, Nagato focussed his chakra in his left eye and shouted, “Amaterasu!”   
Black flames shot forth from the mouth of his Susanno’o and landed a direct hit on Orochimaru and the beast screamed in agony. Nagato shouted, despite the strain it put on his concentration, “Itachi, I need a hand, pin this thing to the ground and then get beside me!”  
Itachi enacted his new orders expertly and jumped into the air with his Susanno’o spear pointed at the beast, aiming to pin it to the ground with a single strike. He began to plummet to the Earth, his spear pointed at the back of the beast. The scream that emanated from the beast when his pinned it to the ground was epically loud and shook the forest around them. Itachi then used his spear as a kind of pole vault and sprang towards Nagato and elegantly landed to his right.   
Still focussing on his Amaterasu, Nagato began to weave signs with his hands; it appeared that Orochimaru was able to heal his burn wounds almost as quickly as Nagato could inflict them. 

“Itachi!” shouted Nagato, “I need you to think of your most painful memory, make it the centre of your mind and focus that energy into your eyes and then focus it on Orochimaru!”  
Itachi did as he was told and brought the memory of Shisui’s death to the forefront of his mind; he then focussed the energy into his eyes and onto Orochimaru. He felt the flames drain a significant amount of his chakra just as they erupted and turned Orochimaru into a pyre of black flame.  
The beast screamed, anger and pain overtaking logic, the demon possessing Orochimaru left his body before it could be destroyed by the flames of Amaterasu, but as it left Orochimaru’s body, both Nagato and Itachi extinguished the flames covering Orochimaru and turned their Susanno’o weapons onto the energy leaving Orochimaru’s body. The chakra blades sliced through the energy that made up the beast and it screamed in a mix of pain and surprise. Nagato used this opportunity to weave a sealing jutsu and slam all four of his Susanno’o blades into the beast’s chest.

“Be gone you foul creature!” shouted Nagato, “Return to the pit from whence you came!”  
The beast then bellowed in frustration as a black hole opened up inside its chest and sucked it back to the dimension that it hailed from. Nagato immediately recalled his Susanno’o chakra and returned to his normal state, his Mangekyou deactivating to rest, while his Sharingan stayed active. Redrawing his katana from its storage seal, he made his way to where the heavily injured Orochimaru lay on the ground. That was when the remaining two Legendary Sannin arrived.


	6. Discovery and Revalation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I really am so sorry for the late update of this story, but I do think that the wait that worth it.

Both Itachi and Nagato stood over the badly burned and nearly mutilated Orochimaru, he was barely clinging to life, but Nagato could sense Orochimaru’s chakra, though it was very weak. He looked towards the two Legendary Sannin that were rushing towards the two Sharingan users, Nagato had expected them to be more imposing and somewhat intimidating, but the two of them seemed to be normal shinobi like any other. It was then that Orochimaru groaned and tried to shift himself onto his hands and knees. Nagato and Itachi were quick to have their blades at his throat and ready to behead their captive if need be.

However, Nagato was amazed to see that Orochimaru was even able to move, let alone groan. He touched his blade to Orochimaru's neck and the Sannin fell to the ground writhing in pain again. That was when Nagato saw a fist flying towards his face from the corner of his eye, he moved his arm to block the fist, but was rewarded for his efforts by being flung backwards into a tree by the sheer force of the blow. Nagato crumpled to the ground at the root of the tree, but not before snapping it in half, however, he was on his feet in moments and charging at the source of the blow with a mighty shout. 

It was then that he saw that the person that hit him was a woman of average stature and blonde hair, her main distinguishing feature being her rather large breasts, from that description, Nagato deducted that she was Tsunade Senju. She was leaning over Orochimaru and her hands were glowing with chakra. It was in that moment that Nagato halted his charge and deactivated his Sharingan entirely. He came to a stop next to Itachi, whom had also deactivated his Sharingan. The two of them watched Tsunade use her medical jutsu and were blown away by the sheer power of her technique, Orochimaru’s burned and blackened skin was healing and his open wounds were closing before their very eyes.

Nagato was astounded by the power of the jutsu, but he supposed that he should have expected as much from a member of the Legendary Sannin. After a few minutes of intense chakra manipulation, Orochimaru’s skin was returned to its natural state, though it was pinkish and smooth as it was newly grown. It was then that Orochimaru opened his eyes, Nagato was on full alert in an instant, his Mangekyou activated in a moment and he had his katana drawn and at the Sannin’s throat in the blink of an eye. Nagato was almost a hundred per cent sure that the possession was dispelled, but it never hurt to be cautious when it came to Orochimaru.

It was then the third Sannin put his hand on Nagato’s shoulder in a reassuring manner, Nagato turned to look at the man, he had long silvery hair and red facial makeup and he wore Konoha battle gear, as did Tsunade. He deduced that the man was Jiraiya the Gama Sannin and Nagato looked into Jiraiya’s dark eyes, they were full of hope and had a pleading look about them and thus Nagato activated the storage seal on his arm and stowed away his katana. While this was happening, Orochimaru was becoming more and more compos mentis and began to notice the world around him.

First his snake-like eyes fixed on Nagato, identifying a possible threat; he then noticed Itachi and his face softened somewhat, his eyes moved to Jiraiya and a look of shock passed over his face and finally his eyes found Tsunade, whom was crying softly while looking at Orochimaru. It was in that moment that Orochimaru moved, he wrapped his arms around Tsunade and hugged her with all the remaining strength he had and began to weep. Orochimaru’s slender body shook as he wept into Tsunade’s shoulder, it was then that Tsunade returned the hug and began to sob with tears of joy.

Jiraiya moved to be next to his two old friends, his face streaming with silent tears of relief and joy; he then put his arm around Tsunade in a comforting gesture and smiled broadly. Nagato allowed them to have their reunion, though he was not so sure of the circumstances of Orochimaru leaving the village, but he was now sure, that the possession had gone back years and had taken a subtle approach to possessing Orochimaru, doing it over years in order to strengthen itself.

The reunion between the Sannin did not take too long and ended with Orochimaru falling asleep in Tsunade’s arms. It was then that Jiraiya took his sleeping friend from Tsunade and lifted him in his arms. Nagato took the opportunity to speak, “Jiraiya-sama,” he began, “we should be extremely cautious with Orochimaru-sama; we do not know if there are any lingering effects from the possession.”  
Jiraiya began to walk towards the ruined main gate of Konoha, his steps gentle and calm so as to not disturb Orochimaru’s slumber. Nagato fell into step next to the Gama Sannin looked at Jiraiya expectantly  
“Yes, any chakra left behind in Orochimaru’s body might become a catalyst for the return on the demon that possessed him,” said Jiraiya, “however; I think that getting him to the Konoha hospital is the best course of action.”

“I agree,” said Itachi, “Orochimaru sustained a great deal of punishment from our combined attacks Nagato-sensei and getting him into an intensive care unit would be the best thing for him at the moment.” The young man was now walking next to Nagato and Jiraiya, Tsunade just behind the three of them; she had a wistful look in her eyes as she stared into the middle distance. Her legs were moving of their own accord, responding to muscle memory more than anything else. It was in that moment that Nagato decided to fall back somewhat and speak to Tsunade about Orochimaru and the circumstances of him leaving Konoha all those years ago.

~~~XXX~~~

The battle outside the walls of Konoha lasted nearly an hour after Orochimaru was restrained and placed into ICU at Konoha hospital. His men refused to surrender and it had taken both Nagato and Itachi to use their Susanno’o to dispatch the most powerful of the demon’s shinobi. They all seemed to be recipients of a curse mark that imbued them with demonic energy and after their master was banished back to its plane of existence, they had gone mad and transformed into hideous beasts from the abyss. They managed to kill and wound quite a number of Konoha shinobi before the last of them were dispatched. 

The village suffered some one hundred dead, two hundred and seventeen wounded and four missing shinobi as casualties, but the entire force of attackers had been killed. The medical shinobi disposed of the bodies with great speed and efficiency under Tsunade’s command and had taken several specimens to study after Nagato had insisted that they needed more information regarding the demon that had possessed Orochimaru and the bodies that had transformed had a wealth of knowledge that could be tapped into.

It had taken a long time to get both Tsunade and Jiraiya to slow down and have a short discussion about the circumstances that Orochimaru had left the village under all those years ago. Once Nagato manages to get all the information he needed from Tsunade and Jiraiya; they had explained that Orochimaru had left the village in the dead of night a few days after Minato was named Yondaime Hokage. However, Tsunade had explained that he had begun to act strangely months before that and his behaviour had led Sandaime-sama to name Minato as his successor instead of Orochimaru. He had left a letter explaining that he would be striking out on his own and working to master all jutsu on his own terms.

It was Nagato’s theory that Orochimaru had used a forbidden jutsu of some sort that was supposed to increase his own power, but had managed to bind a piece of a demon to himself and over the years since that possession, the demon had managed to take over Orochimaru’s body little by little until it could take full control over him with ease. Nagato had gathered his men at the old Uzumaki Estate in order to reorganise them and get their accommodations sorted out before he had a bill from every hotel in Konoha. 

He had them pitch a barracks tent on the grounds as well as a mess hall tent; he also put his lieutenants in charge of repairing the estate and ordered a large number of building supplies from contractors in Konoha. His men would be busy for at least two weeks repairing the estate and that fit in perfectly with his plans to get to know Itachi, Naruto and Sasuke. In visions that he had had in the past he had seen that the three of them would be incredibly important to Konoha and the world at large in the future, he didn’t know how, but he knew that the three boys were indeed very special.

~~~XXX~~~

Nine days later…  
“Oji-chan! Wake up Oji-chan!” shouted Naruto as he banged on Nagato’s bedroom suit door, “Fukagu-Sama is outside; he said I should come fetch you!”  
Nagato groaned and looked at the clock next to his bed, it was seven thirty in the morning and he had been in council meetings late into the previous night about how to deal with Orochimaru and Nagato’s new role as head of Konoha’s ANBU branch. It had not been difficult to sort through the paperwork that Danzo had left behind and all of Danzo’s former lieutenants were loyal to Konoha beyond question and thus would follow Nagato. The situation with Orochimaru was far more complex and he preferred not to think of it.

More banging from the door interrupted his thoughts, “Oji-Chan!”  
Nagato got up and strapped a Kimono around himself as he walked towards the door; he opened it just as Naruto was going to bang on it again and exclaimed, “Boo!”  
The seven year old squealed in delight as Nagato chased after him in their hotel room, the little guy was quick and agile for someone his age, but Nagato quickly caught him and started tickling him. Naruto squealed again and started laughing uncontrollably; however, Nagato quickly stopped tickling his nephew so he could greet Fukagu and his two sons.  
“Let’s greet our guests, hey Naruto?” asked Nagato as he walked towards the main door of their suit, Naruto not far behind him. Nagato walked to the door and opened it with a welcoming smile; he had asked Fukagu to bring his sons early that morning so that they could investigate something that he had begun to suspect in the last nine days.

Sasuke and Naruto had immediately hit it off as friends, the two of them becoming nearly inseparable when they were together. They seemed to know what the other was thinking before they spoke, they were comfortable around each other in a way that was highly unusual for young children that had just met. It had made Nagato start to wonder if perhaps the two of them were connected on some spiritual level. It had been the fourth day that the two boys were playing in the gardens of the Uchiha estate when Nagato used his Mangekyou to analyse their chakra. Both boys’ chakra burned brighter and became far more powerful when they were in the immediate vicinity of each other; this had led Nagato to wonder if they perhaps had a much deeper connection than he had thought.

That was why he had set up this meeting with Fukagu and his sons, so they could discern whether the two boys were connected in some way. Discerning their connection had become far more possible now that Sasuke’s Sharingan had inexplicably activated after coming into contact with Naruto, as if somehow their chakras mixed and spoke with each other. It also helped that Fukagu had unlocked his Mangekyou Sharingan after the battle with the demon spawn, his younger brother was overpowered and killed, activating his Mangekyou and Nagato had seen to using the fallen Uchiha’s Sharingan to make Fukagu’s Mangekyou eternal.

It had been a great boost to the Uchiha clan’s military strength to have two users of the Mangekyou within their ranks as well as Nagato as an ally. It also worth well in Nagato’s favour, as the power of Mangekyou only increased in strength if they were wielded in conjunction with other Mangekyou. Which is why the three of them had gathered this morning, so they could use their powers in tandem with each other and increase the likelihood that they would be able to discern the true nature of Sasuke’s and Naruto’s connection.

“Fukagu, good morning my friend,” greeted Nagato and shook Fukagu’s hand.  
With a smile and a nod, Fukagu answered, “Likewise my friend, may we come in?”  
“Of course,” said Nagato, gesturing with his right arm into his suit. They began to walk into the suit when Naruto literally jumped onto Sasuke, tackling him to the ground.  
“Sasuke-kun!” exclaimed the blonde youth as he grabbed Sasuke around the waist.  
Sasuke immediately countered and shook free of Naruto's grasp and with a laugh ran into the suit shouting, “Bet you can’t catch me again Naruto-kun!”

As the two children ran around the suit shouting and jumping everywhere, Fukagu began to reprimand Sasuke, “Sasuke, get ba…”  
He was interrupted by Nagato placing a hand on his shoulder and saying, “Let them play for a while, we have a few things to discuss before we start the genjustu to inspect their chakra connection.”  
Nagato directed them to a makeshift study he had set up in the third bedroom of the suit and closed the door behind them; he turned his gaze to Itachi and smiled, “Itachi how goes your training with your Mangekyou?”  
Itachi smiled kindly, “It goes well, and my father has adjusted well to his Mangekyou. It makes training interesting and a challenge for a change.”  
Nagato laughed lightly, “So Fukagu, how does it feel to be a student of your own son?”  
Fukagu frowned, “I would not say that I am a student of his, more of a sparring partner that needs practice.” 

Itachi smiled sheepishly at his father and Nagato chuckled lightly, but was suddenly serious, “Despite you unlocking your Mangekyou and beginning training with them, that is not why we are here this morning, we are here to discover why there seems to be an inexplicable connection between Sasuke and Naruto.”  
Nagato surged onward, “We know that there is a connection between their chakra, but we do not know the nature of that connection, nor its origin.”  
“How do you propose we search for the true nature of their connection?” asked Itachi, sounding much older than his thirteen years.  
Nagato looked at him with a knowing smile playing on his lips, “With these,” he said as he activated his Mangekyou, Itachi and Fukagu both nodded and activated their respective Mangekyou and the three of them left the study and walked into the dining room, where Sasuke and Naruto were building a fort out of chairs, blankets and pillows. 

“What have you two been up to?” Nagato asked, a smirk playing on his lips.  
Both of the boys looked up at Nagato, Naruto seemed sheepish and embarrassed, while Sasuke beamed widely, “We built a fort so we can play a game where Naruto and I beat the evil Bijuu inside of him and make it go away and never hurt anyone ever again.”  
Nagato was taken aback by Sasuke's determined tone and the spark in his chakra when he spoke of Naruto in such a protective manner. He felt tears stinging the back of his eyes, but he swallowed them down and looked at the two boys, a smile playing on his lips, “That’s a brave thing to do Sasuke-kun, but you have forgotten the most important weapon you and Naruto-chan have, your Sharingan.”

At mention of their shared power, the boys both activated their Sharingan, their chakra rushing to their eyes and blazing brightly. Nagato took a long look at their chakra signatures, Naruto’s was a bright orange and Sasuke's was a deep purple, both seeming to be the opposite of the other, light and dark, day and night, the sun and the moon, creation and destruction. However, in the background of their chakra something lingered, as if it were thousands of years old and just barely clinging to the material world. The power that clung to them was similar, but each boy had a different side of it.

“Itachi, Fukagu, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” asked Nagato, a smirk playing on his lips.  
“I’m seeing it Nagato-sensei, but I’m not sure that I believe it,” answered Itachi.  
“Could it be?” asked Fukagu, “Could they really be reincarnations of beings so ancient and powerful?”  
Nagato looked at Fukagu then and said, “I think it’s time we had a closer look at that tablet of yours Fukagu.”  
Nagato had a suspition and if he was right, that would mean that the untapped power that these two boys represented was unprecedented and ideas surged through Nagato’s mind until the best one came in a stroke of genius, an idea that would make the two boys’ connection so strong that perhaps they would be able to rival the power of the fabled Sage of the Six Paths.


	7. Shinigami

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Reaper Death Seal is broken....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has taken me so long to update my fanfic, but hopefully I will now have time to do it more often.

“This makes no sense at all!” exclaimed Nagato as he slammed his fist into the floor of the Uchiha’s secret underground chamber, “The tablet’s writing just ends abruptly, it’s as if there’s an entire chapter missing from the end of the writing.” Nagato looked to the tablet again, pouring as much chakra as he possibly could into his Mangekyou, it was as if the secret of the power of the Sage of the Six Paths was just out of his grasp, that it was on the tablet, but unreadable for some reason. “It speaks of a power stronger than that of the Mangekyou Sharingan saying that only by unlocking the next stage of the Sharingan, known as the Rinnegan, can one truly find the ultimate power in the world, something that requires intense chakra and concentration. However, as it is about to name and explain the next evolution, it simply stops and no matter how much chakra I use I cannot see what it is!”  
“Perhaps there simply isn’t anything else to it,” said Fukagu, “maybe the ancient power of the Sage of the Six Paths is truly lost to time.”  
“No!” shouted Nagato, “The Sage would not have written down his teachings of the Sharingan, Mangekyou and Rinnegan, if he was not going to finish it.”  
Itachi was very quiet next to his father and Nagato, staring intently at the tablet, “Perhaps we can only continue reading the tablet once we have mastered the use of this so called ‘Rinnegan’. It isn’t clear on the kind of power a Rinnegan user would possess, but I think the powers are similar to that of the Mangekyou, but it allows access to powers and jutsu far beyond anything we usually see in our world.”  
“There are probably multiple versions of the Rinnegan as well,” stated Fukagu, “each Mangekyou is different in its powers and its uses, perhaps the Rinnegan has a similar property with a core ability, such as the Susanno’o for the Mangekyou.”  
“I think that it’s fair to assume as such,” said Itachi, “especially since none of us have unlocked the Rinnegan.”  
“Dammit,” said Nagato, “just as we discover a way to bring about the true heirs of the Sage of the Six Paths, we’re halted by the ancient bugger himself.” Nagato stood up then, began to leave the basement and return to the now refurbished Uzumaki estate. Looking towards Fukagu he asked, “Have all the preparations been completed for the sealing ritual?”

 

The leader of the Uchiha clan nodded, but unease overtook his body language and Nagato raised an eyebrow and asked in a cool voice, “Is there an issue Fukagu?”  
Fukagu looked as if her were going to hold his tongue, but forged on, “Are you sure that this is the only way to make Sasuke Naruto’s equal in chakra output?”  
Nagato felt his irritation tremble; he had had this discussion with Fukagu, Mikoto, Itachi, Sandaime-sama and even the entire village council. Everyone had agreed that it would increase the military potential of Konoha one hundred fold as well as allowing for a failsafe if Naruto were to go on a Bijuu rampage.  
“Yes, it is the only true way for Sasuke to be able to unlock the power of the Sage, unless he were to have Uzumaki or Senju blood flowing in his veins and he has neither,” stated Nagato, his voice even. Fukagu activated his Mangekyou then, in an attempt to intimidate Nagato.   
Nagato shook his head, “Are you sure you want to do that?” Nagato activated his own Mangekyou in response. There was a staring contest, the two Mangekyou users sizing each other up, gauging the other’s intent. It was when the tension was so tight that it was about to snap that Fukagu asked in a determined voice, “You can guarantee that Sasuke will survive and thrive after the sealing is done?”  
Nagato tilted his head slightly, “No,” he said, “but I can tell you that if something goes wrong, I will sacrifice my own life to make sure that both Sasuke and Naruto get out of this situation alive and well. Will that be enough?”  
For the longest moment Fukagu was tense and looked as if he were a coiled spring, ready to strike, then as abruptly as his hostility had begun, it ended with a deep sigh from the Uchiha.  
“That will have to do,” he said, his Mangekyou deactivating.  
“Good,” said Nagato, “now that that is settled, we can get to the main event of this evening.”  
The three companions had exited to the grounds of the Uchiha estate by the time Nagato and Fukagu had finished speaking and all three fell into a quick crouch and leapt into the air and made their way across the rooftops of Konoha to the Uzumaki estate, where Naruto and Sasuke were under the supervision and care of Mikoto Uchiha.

 

~~~XXX~~~

 

It only took the three Mangekyou users a few minutes to reach their destination and when they arrived, Mikoto had already prepared the two boys for the ritual. Both were dressed in a simple kimono, each decorated in their clan symbols. Both kimonos were edged in a material that had a long string of symbols etched into the fabric with red silk. They were part of an old and incredibly complex Uzumaki sealing ritual that had been passed down for centuries. Nagato had the boys activate their Sharingan and once they were in the basement of the Uzumaki estate, Nagato would have them lay down in a large spiral surrounded by symbols on the ground.  
With their Sharingan active, Naruto and Sasuke were highly attuned to their surroundings and could tell that the three Mangekyou users were very tense and nervous. Nagato smiled at the boys, he was trying to reassure them and therefore asked them the obvious question, “Are you boys ready for the sealing ritual?”  
The boys seemed to be just as nervous as their three clan elders, but they had a determined glint in their eyes, their mysterious bond flowing strongly between them. Nagato could picture their twin wills intertwining and supporting each other, making them a far more powerful force to contend with for any future enemy.  
Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance and nodded in unison and Sasuke answered for the both of them, “We are Nagato-sama.”

 

Nagato looked at Fukagu and Itachi respectively and nodded, he then said calmly, “Follow me to the basement; the Reaper Death Mask is contained within.”  
Mikoto followed the group, a cold determination spreading through all of them, steeling their nerves and galvanising their wills. They walked down the short flight of stairs to the Uzumaki Estate’s secret bunker, a place that few had ever seen, many Uzumaki had not seen it, but Nagato had known of its existence for a long time now and was planning on freeing his brother-in-law’s soul from the Reaper Death Seal.  
When they arrived in the bunker, everyone, besides Mikoto, took positions around a large copy of the Eight Trigrams seal that was used to seal the yang half of the Kyuubi inside Naruto. They were going to momentarily weaken Naruto’s seal in order to let out some of the Kyuubi’s chakra to make it easier to remove the yin half of the Kyuubi from Minato.  
Nagato turned to his nephew and Sasuke and calmly said, “I’m going to use a genjustu to make the both of you fall into a deep sleep. When you wake up, this will be all over. Is that alright with the both of you?”  
The boys looked to each other for some encouragement and with their wills hardened they both said, “Oso.”

Nagato smiled at their resolve and activated his Mangekyou, “Look into my eyes boys and relax.” The boys did as they were asked and quickly fell into a deep sleep. Nagato then opened the front of both their kimonos and drew the ancient runes and symbols of the eight trigrams seal onto Sasuke’s stomach, in the same place that Naruto had his seal, however, there was a marked difference between the two seals. While Naruto’s seal had a swirl in the shape of a sun in the middle of his seal, Nagato took special care to draw a swirl in the shape of a crescent moon.

 

“Alright, the seal is prepared, it’s time to summon the Shinigami and free my brother-in-law from his prison,” as Nagato was saying this he walked to the rack in the basement with a multitude of masks on it, each able to summon a different being from the void. Nagato picked up the mask able to summon an aspect of the shinigami and looked it over. After giving the mask a once over he looked to Fukagu and Itachi, “If it seems that I am losing control of the shinigami, get the boys and yourselves out of here.”  
Both of his compatriots nodded their ascent and activated their Mangekyou, ready to move at a moment’s notice. Satisfied that all was prepared, Nagato quickly cut a finger on his left hand with a kunai and placed it on the mask and said, “Kyosuo no jutsu.”

 

The summoning was nearly immediate and Nagato had to back step a few times in order to avoid being touched by the Shinigami’s chakra. Before the three Mangekyou users stood a shinigami, its eyes hungry for a kill and its malice pulsing throughout the room.  
“Why have I been…” but as the shinigami was going to finish its sentence it looked into Nagato’s eyes and he placed it in the strongest genjustu he could muster, but he had underestimated the sheer amount of concentration it would take to maintain the genjustu on the shinigami. Gritting his teeth and the beginnings of blood tears falling from his eyes, Nagato growled out in a pained voice, “Itachi, please weaken the seal on Naruto.”  
Itachi moved with lightning speed and placed his right hand on the seal and turned left ever so slightly.  
Immediately, dark orange chakra began to leak out of Naruto and flow into the giant copy of the eight trigrams seal on the ground. The shinigami reacted slightly and Nagato’s nose began to bleed from the huge mental effort it was taking to maintain his genjustu. However, he did have full control of the Shinigami’s movements and thus he had it summon Minato’s spirit from the seal it had created to hold him. After a few moments and hand signs from the shinigami, Minato’s spirit materialised in front of the shinigami as pure chakra and solidified itself in order to interact with the physical world. The spirit seem bewildered and unsure of its surroundings, but then it recognised Nagato, “Nagato, is that you?”

 

Nagato smiled despite the strain he was under and said, “Yes it is my brother, but I must dispose of the pleasantries. We are in need of your help.”  
Nagato was now starting to get a feel for the strength of the shinigami and it was taking less effort to maintain the genjustu. It was then that Minato noticed the other people in the room and his eyes fixed on Naruto, “My son,” was all he said before walking to Naruto’s sleeping form. He looked at Naruto with sad eyes and said plainly, “He’s so beautiful.”  
Nagato was touched by Minato’s reaction, but the genjustu was draining his chakra at an exponential rate so he forged on, “Minato, I have discovered a way to bring about the new Sage of the Six Paths. These two boys are the answer.”  
Minato turned to look at Nagato and appeared in front of him again, “What is your plan?” he asked with a glint in his spectral eyes.   
Nagato had known that Minato would jump on the band wagon and thus continued on, “These two boys are connected somehow, their strength and power seems to flow between the two of them, they both possess the Sharingan and Naruto has the Ao Sharingan. If we can seal the yin half of the Kyuubi inside of Sasuke, he will be every bit Naruto’s equal in chakra output and they will be melded ever closer.”

 

Minato took a moment to think and answered by disappearing behind Nagato and moved towards Sasuke. He opened his own jacket and shirt and touched the seal on his chest where he had sealed the yin Kyuubi seven years ago and touched it with his thumb. He then pulled his thumb away and a dark orange chakra trailed behind the thumb. Minato then touched the seal on Sasuke and activated the ancient Uzumaki seal. It quickly went about its work and drained the yin Kyuubi from Minato and pulled it into Sasuke. Sasuke fidgeted in his sleep, but did not wake and Nagato smiled, he knew that now his goal of bringing about the return of the Sage of the Six Paths was within sight.  
Minato again appeared before Nagato and said, “It is done, I am ready to return to my seal within the shinigami.”  
It was now Nagato’s turn to do something for his brother-in-law, “Minato, I have no intension of sending you back with the shinigami. I am going to have it release its seal on your soul.” Minato looked at Nagato and said simply, “Thank you my brother, I will give your regards to Kushina on the other side.”  
Before he could shed any real tears, Nagato forced the shinigami to release the jutsu that held Minato’s soul and within moments, Minato disappeared into the afterlife.  
Nagato the turned his full power on the shinigami and forced it back to the void where it could not harm them or exact vengeance upon them. He turned to Itachi and Fukagu and said with a sigh of relief, “It is finished.” Nagato promptly fell to the floor and into unconsciousness.


	8. The Sage's Path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi and Nagato go on a trip.

Nagato was walking side by side with Itachi in the country side of the Land of Fire. They were on a special pilgrimage to the ancient Uchiha shrine in the mountains to the far North of the Land of Fire, on the border with the Land of Lightning. The shrine was supposedly hidden to all that did not possess the Sharingan and thus, the two of them would be among the first to see it since Madara Uchiha’s generation. They were hoping to gain some insight into the legends surrounding the fabled Rinnegan and the Sage of the Six Paths.  
Originally, Fukagu was supposed to join them on their trek, however, he had insisted that a Mangekyou user should stay behind in Konoha to better defend the village should the need arise and both Itachi and Nagato had agreed. It also meant that Naruto and Sasuke would have a strong disciplinarian around should they get up to any mischief, which they would.

 

Nagato and Itachi had been on the road for three days and were nearly half way to their destination when Itachi asked a question that Nagato did not suspect, “How long did you know Shisui before he died?”  
Nagato was visibly shocked by this question, but he did not waver in his answer, “He and I were in contact for nearly three years before he died and he was my student for two of those three.”

 

Itachi simply nodded and gazed at the setting sun, the sky around it going shades of orange, purple and red as it began to slip below the horizon. Nagato was captivated by the beauty of the sunset, such beauty and power the sun possessed that the entire world was dependent on it for life.  
They continued on their country road until the sun was well and truly set, only then did they stop to make camp. They built a small fire and placed two bedrolls on the ground, they were travelling light, except for their food, and Nagato had packed some of the best travel food he could buy in Konoha. It was one of his weaknesses, good food that is. The two of them munched away at cured meats, cheeses, and bread and had chocolate for a dessert. Throughout dinner, Itachi was silent, not a word escaped his lips as he ate. Nagato tried in vain to strike up a conversation with the youth, but was unsuccessful.  
“You’re still thinking about Shisui aren’t you?” asked Nagato. 

 

Itachi was quiet for a moment longer, but answered while looking away from Nagato, “Yes, and wondering if he had been normal, would he still be alive.”  
Nagato was flabbergasted by Itachi’s statement, “What do you mean by normal?”  
Itachi stood up from his bedroll then and took a few steps away from the fire; his voice was strained, as if he were holding back his anger, “I mean that maybe if he hadn’t known about the Mangekyou or hadn’t been trained in its use he might still be alive.”  
Nagato stood from his bedroll then and with outrage colouring his words he spat out, “How could you say something like that? You know that Shisui sought me out after he unlocked his Mangekyou!”  
Itachi locked eyes with Nagato and accused, “So you say. How am I supposed to know that you didn’t manipulate the situation to suit your own plans? The only one that could tell me that you’re being truthful was Shisui and he’s dead!”

 

“You tread in dangerous territory Itachi, I would…” however, before Nagato could continue with his warning, he picked up a strange movement along Itachi’s right hand and arm. Expecting an attack from his student, Nagato activated his Mangekyou and charged them to full power, what greeted him was not an attack but a shadow. It was a chakra that was ancient in origin and potent in its evil. He took a few steps back and spoke in a very calm voice, “Itachi, don’t move a muscle.”  
“Why should I listen to,” Itachi began, but before he could finish, he made eye contact with Nagato and the Mangekyou master put Itachi into a deep and multi-layered genjustu that forced him to sleep. The entity that was clinging to Itachi’s body moved away from him now and materialised into a man, made of shadow with glowing yellow eyes. Nagato did not know what to expect, thus he called on his Susanno’o and allowed the energy to coat his body, but he kept it from forming the body of the Susanno'o.  
He analysed the entity, looking for an opening to exploit or a way to get to Itachi and run from this place if need be. He had begun to focus so heavily on the entity, that he almost didn’t notice the kunai thrown at him from the treetops. He caught sight of it in his peripheral vision and managed to dodge the attack just in time. The kunai planted itself into the tree behind Nagato with a loud thump. Nagato increased the power of his Susanno’o and allowed it to form the basic rip cage around his body in order to better protect himself.

 

“I suggest that you show yourself, coward,” began Nagato, “my patience wears thin already and I’m not beyond burning half this forest down to eliminate you and this aberration .”  
Nagato was greeted with a shrill cackle from the treetops and a man dropping to his haunches not too far away from Nagato. The Mangekyou master was confronted by a man in an orange battle mask with a single eye socket cut out of its face. In this dark socket, Nagato saw the tell-tale glow of a Sharingan. Nagato narrowed his eyes at his newly identified foe and again increased the power going to his Susanno’o causing deep crimson flames to erupt from the ethereal skeleton and envelope Nagato further within his Susanno'o. He would take no chances against a Sharingan user.  
The aberration made to move towards the masked man, but Nagato was faster with his Mangekyou at full strength. He created and lunged out an arm of his Susanno’o, the skeletal arm and hand throwing up dust and dirt into the air and stopped Nagato’s two opponents from linking up. He looked back to the masked man and spoke with a dangerous edge to his voice,  
“I’m going to give you this one chance to tell me who you are and what you were doing to my student and once you have told me your story, you will get on your knees and beg for forgiveness or suffer under the power of my Susanno’o.”  
The masked man cocked his head to the side, as if Nagato were a particularly interesting insect, “You will have my name at the very least then,” began the masked man, “I am Madara Uchiha…”

 

Nagato had heard enough at the mention of Madara’s name, he threw as much chakra as he could into his Susanno’o and created the basic skeleton in full. He knocked this ‘Madara’ back into the trees and used a burst of Amaterasu flames to force the aberration to retreat to its master. Nagato then used two of the Susanno’o arms to scoop up Itachi and suspend him safely within the Susanno’o, just behind Nagato. Once he was sure that Itachi was secure, he allowed his Susanno'o to take its true form. He was carried into the construct’s head, its body growing ethereal muscle and bone until it resembled a man.   
However, something felt different about Nagato’s Susanno’o, he reached out with his chakra and noticed that the construct had grown a full set of armour and two of its arms had grown out of its back instead of underneath the main arms. Nagato, however, did not have long to contemplate this new form of the Susanno’o, as ‘Madara’ burst through the canopy of trees with a perverted form of the Susanno’o surrounding himself. His construct was as black as the void and its eyes glowed a sickly yellow.  
Nagato braced himself, the tower shield and scimitar of his Susanno’o deftly falling into a guarded stance. The black Susanno’o roared loudly, the shrill sound causing a shiver to go down Nagato’s spine. It charged forward, its legs and body crushing trees and throwing up chunks of earth. Nagato saw his chance and lunged forward, using the tower shield to cover his advance, he went on the offensive. 

 

The two titans of chakra collided, one of red fire and the other of black smoke. Nagato used his shield to his advantage and shoved ‘Madara’ back. He then brought his scimitar down in a deadly arch, the chakra blade bit into the black Susanno’o, but quickly passed right through it after the initial cut. ‘Madara’ lashed out with two of the Susanno’o limbs and connected with Nagato’s shield hard enough to send him flying backwards. Nagato, however, managed to get a good look at the black Susanno’o limbs; they were tentacular in nature and seemed to be made of the same chakra as the aberration from before.

 

This ‘Madara’ doesn’t have a natural Susanno’o, thought Nagato with a wicked smile contorting his face. He hit the grown hard, be used the arms on the back of his Susanno’o to push off the ground and land on its feet. He had to contain this imposter before the battle annihilated the entire forest. He concentrated on using his Amaterasu; blood flowed from his eyes as he called up the black flames of sheer emotion. They spread out around them, cutting the two fighters off from the rest of the forest, yet giving them a rather wide arena in which to fight. Nagato then charged at his confused opponent and slashed at it with his scimitar, cutting two of its tentacles from the main body. However, the beast lashed out with its own limbs and managed to pierce Nagato’s shield. The shield then seemed to dissolve into nothingness, realising what was happening, Nagato jumped back from his opponent doing a somersault in the air before landing some distance away. 

 

He looked at the left arm of his Susanno’o and was shocked to see that part of its hand had been taken along with his shield. Nagato knew of only one jutsu that could accomplish such a feat, Kamui. His opponent seemed to have a decent grasp of their Mangekyou, however, Nagato had access to the same dimension that kamui sent the objects that it took. He concentrated once again and called his shield back from the void; it came forth and landed on the ground right in front of Nagato. Reassembling the left hand of his Susanno’o, he took up the shield and charged ahead with a plan forming in his mind.  
He now understood why his scimitar had gone right through ‘Madara’ before and he knew how to counter it. If he used kamui on the same parts of his Susanno’o that were attempting to damage ‘Madara’ in the same way that he used the jutsu, then he might be able to strike the man. He did precisely that with his next attack and the scimitar stuck true. The black Susanno’o screamed in agony and tried to back away from Nagato.  
“Oh no you don’t,” said Nagato, “we’re playing by my rules now.”

 

With a look of insane glee upon his face, Nagato charged forward, the feet of his Susanno’o slamming into the ground beneath them and shaking the earth itself. He extinguished the Amaterasu that surrounded the battlefield and tackled the black Susanno’o. The two chakra titans tore and ripped at each other, but Nagato managed to do what he intended and pin the black Susanno’o in a brawl. He then called upon his kamui and pulled both himself and this ‘Madara’ into the void.


	9. Kamui

Nagato felt the vastness of the void around himself as he entered the Kamui dimension, it was enormous, a construct that seemed to emanate with hundreds of different chakra signatures. It seemed as though this dimension had been accessed and added to by thousands of Mangekyou Sharingan users across the expanse of time. However, Nagato could not focus on the academic potential of this place as he had a fight to finish. He was still tangled in a brawl with the black aberration and its foul master. The aberration had his Susanno’o on its back, he was pinned, or so his adversary would have liked to think.

 

He used the arms on the back of his Susanno'o to push himself up and begin spinning his foe like a pinwheel, at the last possible moment he threw the monstrous being as hard as he could into the nearest stone wall. The aberration growled in agony as Nagato did a somersault to put some distance between himself and his foe. He had his scimitar and shield materialised in moments and at the ready. He filled his Mangekyou with chakra again, not willing to let his Susanno'o dematerialise in the midst of this fight. The black construct stood then and faced Nagato with its sickly yellow eyes.

 

Nagato sensed a momentary increase in chakra output and a fiery phoenix burst forth from the construct’s mouth. The jutsu was so fast that he had barely a moment to dodge it; he failed to dodge it and raised his shield to take the blast of the jutsu. It was more powerful than he expected and the resounding explosion managed to destroy his shield and vaporise the arm of his Susanno'o all the way to its shoulder. For a moment the entire construct flickered as if it would dematerialise, Nagato dug into his chakra reserves again and managed to reform his Susanno'o arm just in time to receive the charge of this “Madara”.

 

The blow shook him to his core and tore pieces of his Susanno'o from the main body, but he hit back hard, weaving a few hand signs in quick succession he sent a bolt of lightning to his Susanno'o blade and sliced into “Madara’s” Susanno'o. The lightning exploded inside the body of the black Susanno'o and sent “Madara” flying from the construct’s head and into the stone wall behind him. The construct, however, did not dematerialise and continued its attacks. Nagato called forth his second scimitar and laid into the black aberration. He sliced it into ribbons and retreated from close quarters combat in order to throw up an Amaterasu cage around the remains of the construct.   
The roiling mass of black chakra roared its frustration with being confined in the black-red flames of Nagato’s Susanno'o, but it did not attempt to leave its prison. Nagato then turned his blood stained face towards where he had thrown “Madara” and was pleased to see that the man was standing, bleeding profusely from his left shoulder. His right hand was firmly planted on the wound to stem the flow of blood and his orange battle mask had obviously seen better days. The right side of the mask was terribly damaged and cracking in several places.

 

Nagato had this “Madara” on the ropes; he could feel it, his chakra reserves were low, Nagato could sense it. Nagato’s own chakra reserves weren’t in great shape either, but he was uninjured and in the position of power. He turned his head to look behind him and check on Itachi, the boy was still sleeping soundly, wrapped in the embrace of Nagato’s genjustu. He took Itachi into his arms and slowly allowed his Susanno'o to dissipate, the chakra construct slowly shrank into its creator and Nagato gradually descended towards the ground. His sandals made a light clicking sound as they touched the hard stone floor of the dimension. Nagato lowered Itachi to the ground and gently left him there to sleep.  
Nagato refocussed his attention on “Madara” and charged his Mangekyou once again, ready to continue fighting. “Madara” had tied a make-shift tourniquet above his wound and had drawn a scythe-like weapon from a seal. Nagato drew his katana from the seal on his left wrist and held it firmly at the ready, his foe had tenacity and he could respect that, despite the fact that he would still fight with his all against this imposter.

 

“You do know that this would be far easier on you if you simply surrendered,” Nagato said, a deadly sneer on his lips.  
“Madara” tensed at the word surrender, but followed through with a remark of his own, “And where would the fun be in that?”  
Nagato began to laugh, at first a snigger, then a chuckle and finally a full blown guffaw at the sheer joy at finally facing a truly tenacious adversary in over a decade.  
“I do hope you manage to survive our battle,” Nagato said, a smile playing at his lips, “because I have a few questions to ask you.”  
“That’s if you survive this battle,” said ‘Madara’, “I may be injured, but I assure you that I have plenty left to give.”  
Nagato smiled gleefully and charged at his foe and attempted a quick strike to his head, ‘Madara’ blocked it with his scythe. With laughter pealing from his mouth Nagato let loose a deadly barrage of attack against his foe, however, ‘Madara’ managed to meet each of his blows, deflecting them with precision. 

 

Nagato was not a patient man in any sense of the word and quickly became irritated with his lack of progress. He feinted right and struck left at ‘Madara’s’ wound and managed to draw blood. ‘Madara’ growled and struck at Nagato and managed to cut him above his left eye, causing blood to pour profusely down his face and force him to close his left eye. This effectively cut off Nagato from his Amaterasu, as his right eye produced the flames, but his left eye allowed him to control them.

 

The two fighters jumped away from each other and began circling like tigers before striking their prey. Nagato tried in vain to get the blood out of his eye and ‘Madara’ again tried to stop the bleeding from his arm. The two men eventually gave up in their struggles and sized each other up once again. Nagato could sense that ‘Madara’s’ chakra levels were decreasing to critical lows, he needed one last great burst of speed and strength to finish his opponent. He focussed on his left hand and concentrated on his lightning chakra, pooling it in his palm he manifested a chidori jutsu and let the lightning coat his lower arm. He was angry now and he was determined to finish this fight before ‘Madara’ could escape.

 

Nagato was the first to charge, however, ‘Madara’ had also broken into a charge, lightning coating his blade. The two fighters collided and as Nagato’s katana connected with ‘Madara’s’ scythe, the katana was cut clean through, however, Nagato anticipated that would happen and used his blade as it was being destroyed to force ‘Madara’ to Nagato’s right. As ‘Madara’ was reeling from having his entire course changed, Nagato spun around and slapped ‘Madara’ in the side of the head with his left hand and allowed the chidori to discharge directly into ‘Madara’s’ head.  
The momentary gasp of shock from his opponent pleased Nagato as ‘Madara’ fell to the ground, completely unconscious and now under Nagato’s tender mercies. It was then that Nagato felt a pinching pain in his abdomen and looked down to see a kunai firmly planted in his side, just below his kidney. The pain was blinding and Nagato’s vision blurred just as his forehead hit the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in what will hopefully be a long list of chapters. Please leave kudos and comments if you deem it worthy. Thanks!


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